We’re not too sure if the prospect of driverless cars terrifies or excites you, but whether you like it or not they will be coming to a road near you very soon.
It seems the UK Government is set on turning this idea into a frightening reality, with George Osbourne announcing they will be hitting our motorways next year.
A small amount of test drives will be going on in Bristol, Coventry, Greenwich and Milton Keynes in the coming months.
Despite the self-controlled vehicles being involved in over a dozen fender-benders in the past, it was only a few days back that it was first involved in a crash which it was at fault for.
The chancellor has set out an aim to revolutionise motoring as we know it by 2020 and is set to confirm more details about the move in next week’s budget.
He’s hoping it could boost the economy and allow the UK to become a global leader in a market that could be worth £900bn worldwide by 2025.
He said:
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. That’s what my Budget next week will seek to do. Driverless 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. If successful, we could see driverless cars available for sale and on Britain’s roads, boosting UK jobs and productivity.
Osbourne also hopes to bring forward the scrapping of regulations which prevent autonomous driving this summer, which would then allow driverless cars to be on the roads by 2020.
Engineers believe that driverless cars could eventually prevent 95 per cent of crashes- that’s according to the Treasury anyway.
It’ll be interesting to see how this all turns out.
