UK Wishes to Be the Home
of Driverless Testing

By MIKE HRYMAK | Jul 6, 2015

The United Kingdom has a storied history in the automotive industry. It's the home of celebrated sport and luxury car manufacturers like Jaguar, Bentley, Aston Martin, Land Rover, McLaren and much, much more. It is now trying to be the home of the future of the automobile industry, automated driving.

A major push is being made by the UK Government to make them the destination of choice for manufacturers to test their driverless technologies. It's not hard to see why. According to the Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders, citing research by KPMG, autonomous cars will create 320,000 jobs by 2030. The UK economy could also see a £51bn boost as well as a reduction of 25,000 or more serious accidents a year.

Tim Armitage, Project Director of the UK Autodrive Consortium, says the UK is such a great destination for driverless car testing because there are no limits to where they can be tested.

“The advantage of the UK right now is it can be done anywhere,” he says. “It could be a motorway trial, it could be a dual-carriageway, it could be a city-to-city type trial.”

The government is currently reviewing their highway code and a practice for trialing autonomous transport. The code of practice is expected to be approved in a few months and will most likely require that automated vehicles have steering mechanisms. It will also make clear that the driver of the car will be liable for the car at all times, even if the car is in autonomous mode.

More information on the UK Government's push for driverless car testing, visit here.

Motoring ahead by FinancialTimes