UK Trials Driverless Lorries

Driveless lorries and cars will be trialled in a "quiet stretch" of the M6 motorway in Cumbria in 2016.

13:13 18 March 2016

The government has confirmed that driverless cars and lories will be trialled in the UK, in which vehicles form a convoy headed by a driver in the leading lorry. Meanwhile, driverless cars will be trialled on UK roads by 2017.

 

In the Budget, the government said that it wanted the UK to be “a global centre for excellence in connected and autonomous vehicles.”

 

However, Edmund King, the president of the roadside recovery firm AA, had some doubts. He said: "The problem with the UK motorway network is that we have more entrances and exits of our motorways than any other motorways in Europe or indeed the world.”

 

"Therefore it's very difficult to have a 44 tonne 10-lorry platoon, because other vehicles need to get past the platoon to enter or exit the road."

 

Other technology-related points included in the Budget are the plans for a £15m "connected corridor" between Dover and London, trials of comparative fuel signage on the M5 motorway between Bristol and Exeter, and the development of a “5G” strategy in 2017 that will prepare the UK for next generation wireless communication.