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With all the technological advancements in the motoring industry it comes as no surprise that driverless cars will soon be allowed on public roads.
According to the BBC, the autonomous cars will hit the UKs roads from January next year.
UK cities have been invited to compete to host one of three trials of the tech, which would start at the same time.
In light of the announcement, ministers have ordered a review of the UK’s road regulations to provide appropriate guidelines.
Business Secretary Vince Cable revealed the details of the new plan at a research facility belonging to Mira, an automotive engineering firm based in the Midlands.
“Today’s announcement will see driverless cars take to our streets in less than six months, putting us at the forefront of this transformational technology and opening up new opportunities for our economy and society,” he said.
UK engineers, including a group at the University of Oxford, have been experimenting with driverless cars. However, legal and insurance issues have so far restricted the machines to private roads.
Other countries have, however, been swifter to provide access to public routes.
The US states of California, Nevada and Florida have all approved tests of the vehicles. In California alone, Google’s driverless car has done more than 300,000 miles on the open road.
In 2013, Nissan carried out Japan’s first public road test of an autonomous vehicle on a highway.
And in Europe, the Swedish city of Gothenburg has given Volvo permission to test 100 driverless cars - although that trial is not scheduled to occur until 2017.
UK cities wanting to host one of the trials have until the start of October to declare their interest. The tests are then intended to run for between 18 to 36 months.
The label ‘driverless vehicle’ covers a lot of different premises since, the cruise control, automatic braking, anti-lane drift and self-parking functions already built into many vehicles offer a certain degree of autonomy.
But the term is generally used to refer to vehicles that take charge of steering, accelerating, indicating and braking during most if not all of a journey between two points, much in the same way aeroplanes can be set to autopilot.
In May, Google unveiled plans to manufacture 100 self-driving vehicles.
The search-giant exhibited a prototype which has no steering wheel or pedals - just a stop-go button.
Google has also put its autonomous driving technology in cars built by other companies, including Toyota, Audi and Lexus.
Other major manufacturers, including BMW, Mercedes-Benz, Nissan and General Motors, are developing their own models.
