UK to allow testing of driver driver-less cars on motorways
14 Mar 2016
UK chancellor of the exchequer George Osborne will approve testing of driver-less cars on UK motorways to help make the technology available to consumers by the end of the decade.
The government also aimed to remove regulatory barriers so that driver-less cars could be used on UK roads within the current parliamentary term, according to a government statement yesterday.
Trials would be held on local roads this year, and test drives would be allowed on motorways and strategic roads for the first time in 2017.
"At a time of great uncertainty in the global economy, Britain must take bold decisions now to ensure it leads the world when it comes to new technologies and infrastructure," Osborne said in a statement. "Driverless cars could represent the most fundamental change to transport since the invention of the internal combustion engine."
According to commentators, with automakers from Mercedes-Benz to BMW in competition to get driver-less cars ready for the road, Osborne was hoping the announcement in Wednesday's Budget would help the UK tap into a global market projected to be worth £900 billion by 2025.
The UK government said last year that there were no legal barriers to the technology being tested and gave the go-ahead for vehicle trials to start on a number of local roads.
"Naturally we need to ensure safety, and that's what the trials we are introducing will test," Osborne said in a statement ahead of his annual budget presentation.
"If successful, we could see driver-less cars available for sale and on Britain's roads, boosting UK jobs and productivity."
The testing of driver-less cars would be restricted to vehicles with a person present and able to take control if the need arose, according to the UK's Department for Transport's earlier statement.
On Friday, the top US safety agency said significant legal hurdles still remained to be cleared before self-driving cars without steering wheels and gas pedals could be sold in the US.
