British driverless car trials announced
If you’re on the streets of Greenwich, Bristol, Milton Keynes or Coventry in the new year, don’t be surprised if you see a car zip by without someone at the wheel: The cities (and borough) have been announced as the locations for government-mandated driverless car trials, it has been announced.
The government will be dishing out £9m to help the three trials (Milton Keynes & Coventry are working together), which will be kicking off for 18-36 months from January 1st.
Nick Jones, lead technologist at quango Innovate UK, which is backing the trials said: “Cars that drive themselves would represent the most significant transformation in road travel since the introduction of the internal combustion engine and at Innovate UK, we want to help the UK to lead the world in making that happen.
Presumably the four cities have been picked for different types of challenging terrain: Milton Keynes for its grids, Greenwich for winding, tourist-packed streets, Bristol for its hill and Coventry for its god forsaken ring-road.
We’ll let you know how the trials get on.
