A couple of weeks ago, U.S. technology giant, Google, unveiled the first prototype of a self-driving car. With the UK keen to become a world leader in driverless cars, Science Minister David Willetts told the Daily Mail that he was already in talks with the Department of Transport about rewriting the law to allow autonomous cars to hit the road.
Google have gone ahead with developing their self-driving car despite legal restrictions in the U.S. At the moment, California law allows the Google car to be tested on public roads, but only if someone is sitting in the driver's seat, ready to takeover control if needed.
A British version of a driverless car is currently being developed in Oxford, which is cheaper than Google’s version, but Google have notched up more miles with their prototype. In order to combat this U.S. competition, a prize fund of £10million will soon be launched in the UK for a whole town or city to develop as a test site for consumer testing of driverless cars.
Google’s prototype, which is small enough to fit inside a standard trailer, has none of the features that we traditionally associate with driving. The pedals, brakes and steering wheel have been replaced with a humble button.
"Our software and sensors do all the work," Google wrote in a blog post. "The vehicles will be very basic—we want to learn from them and adapt them as quickly as possible—but they will take you where you want to go at the push of a button."
Once changes to the UK law have been introduced, Britain could become the global leader in this technology. How do you feel about the prospect of driverless cars hitting the road?