Driverless Cars

Driverless cars to hit UK roads and motorways in 2019.

16:46 25 April 2017

The UK government has given an AI firm £12.8 million to develop a technology that will allow members of the public to summon driverless cars with a click of a button.

 

Cambridge-based FiveAI will develop the technology alongside Direct Line, the University of Oxford, Transport for London and the Transport Research Laboratory.

 

FiveAI plans to create the system by the third quarter of 2019 and sees it being trialed in 10 electric cars in south London.

 

Mr Stan Boland, CEO of FiveAI, said: 'It's about delivering to the consumer an autonomous Uber-type service in London.

 

'It's insane for people to buy a car and then leave it parked for 94 per cent of the time and only have one user per car, in the future vehicles can be shared.'

 

The government has also awarded Oxford-based Driven group funding to try out a fleet of autonomous vehicles between London and Oxford.

 

Professor Paul Newman, founder of Driven, said:  'We're moving from the singleton autonomous vehicle to fleets of autonomous vehicles - and what's interesting is what data the vehicles share with one another, when, and why.'