What are self driving cars?
A self-driving car seemed like something of the future many years ago however the time has come to amend our driving experience. A self driving car is one that uses a combination of sensors, cameras, radar and artificial intelligence (AI) to travel between destinations without an actual driver behind the wheel. Sounds amazing right? To qualify as fully autonomous, a car must be able to navigate without human intervention to a predetermined destination over roads that have not been adapted for its use.
Many of the leading car companies are developing and testing self driving cars include Audi, BMW, Ford, Google, Tesla, Volkswagen and Volvo. Google’s test involved a fleet of self-driving cars – including Toyota Prii and an Audi TT – navigating over 140,000 miles of California streets and highways.
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Why are self driving cars good for the UK economy?
“Self driving cars could represent the most fundamental change to transport since the invention of the internal combustion engine. Naturally, we need to ensure safety, and that’s what the trials we are introducing will test.”
Self driving car trials will be the latest project to be funded by the government’s £100m Intelligent Mobility Fund, a pot of money set up to back innovations in transport technology.
The Treasury conceded that some lanes might need to be closed in order to allow the trials to take place.
The transport secretary, Patrick McLoughlin, suggested that the new technologies being tested in the trials could “benefit our society and the wider economy by opening up new routes for global investment”.
Work is already being carried out to prepare for trials on roads in Bristol, Coventry, Milton Keynes and Greenwich; and the government is also backing plans for a “connected corridor” on the key freight route from London to Dover, which would allow vehicles travelling along it to tap into communications networks.
The Japanese carmaker Nissan plans to make its first mass-market driverless car in the UK at its plant in Sunderland, while Jaguar Land Rover plans to test its autonomous and connected vehicle technologies on the roads of the West Midlands by the end of the year.
Are they likely to become the normal?
