Driverless cars trial set for UK motorways in 2019

There are plans by the Driven Group to test driverless cars on UK roads and motorways in 2019. Previous tests of driverless vehicles in the UK have mainly taken place at slow speeds and not on public roads.

Oxbotica who makes software for driverless vehicles are leaders of the Driven Group. Some of their plans also include trying out a fleet of autonomous vehicles between London and Oxford. The cars will communicate with each other about any hazards and should operate with almost full autonomy - but will have a human on board as well.

The project is backed by an £8.6m government grant and involves an insurance company, which will assess the risks involved at each stage of the journey.

The UK government has committed about £100m in total towards autonomous driving projects and has said it wants Britain to "lead the way in developing" the tech.

"It will save so many lives and so much money."

Source BBC

An autonomous car just drove across the USA

STEPHEN LAM/Reuters/Corbis via wired.com

An autonomous car just drove across the USA.

Nine days after leaving San Francisco, the car rolled into New York City after crossing 15 states and 3,400 miles to make history.

99 percent of the driving was done by the car on its own, a human behind the wheel only when it was time to leave the highway and hit city streets.

This amazing feat, by the automotive supplier Delphi, underscores the great leaps this technology has taken in recent years, and just how close it is to becoming a part of our lives. 

You’d have to look twice to spot the cameras and LIDaR around the car; the radars are hidden behind plastic body panels. Even the trunk looks ordinary, which is quite a feat—Delphi packed all the necessary computers in the spare tire compartment. That was intentional, Owens says. “We were kind of going for the remarkably unremarkable look.” The reason for this modesty is any tech Delphi pitches to automakers has to be unobtrusive and production-ready. 

Today, most of the world’s major automakers are working on autonomous technology, with Audi, Mercedes-Benz, Nissan, and Volvo leading the pack. Google may be more advanced than anyone: The tech giant says its self-driving cars are so far along, they can recognize and respond to hand signals from a cop directing traffic.

Most automakers are taking a slow and steady approach to the technology and plan to roll it out over time. Most expect to have cars capable of handling themselves in stop and go traffic and on the highway within three to five years. Cars capable of navigating more complex urban environments will follow in the years beyond that, while fully autonomous vehicles are expected to be commonplace by 2040.

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