Self-driving cars: How quickly will they hit the road in the UK – and when you can buy one
3 min readSelf-driving cars – of a sort – are set to hit UK roads this year. The Department for Transport said today that cars equipped with automatic lane keeping systems will be cleared for use on UK motorways. That will mean drivers can sit back and let their vehicle do the work to keep them in lane behind the car in front – but only up to speeds of 37mph. Drivers will need to be on hand to take over driving within 10 seconds if necessary.
It’s a far cry from most people’s dreams of self-driving cars, where passengers can let their cars handle tricky junctions, busy roundabouts and winding country roads on their behalf. In 2017 then-Chancellor Philip Hammond predicted fully self-driving cars would be on British roads by 2021. That has turned out to be wildly over-optimistic, with technical challenges and a handful of high-profile accidents delaying progress.
So how far away are fully self-driving cars from being on the road?
Experts talk about there being six levels of driverless car, ranging from level zero which is a traditional car to level six, where the machine can do anything a human driver can. Most cars on the market are level one, meaning all they can do is keep the vehicle in lane or manage its speed, or level two, helping you to park and steer.
It’s not until level three that the car will start taking decisions on behalf of the driver, while levels four and five is when self-driving cars can completely replace a human driver.
The most cutting-edge self-driving cars are somewhere between level three and four right now. Perhaps the most advanced is Google’s Waymo project, which is trialling self-driving taxis in Arizona.
In fact, the taxi market could be the first to launch self-driving cars at scale. Ride-hailing starts to make serious money when the main cost base – paying the driver – is removed. Chinese tech giant Baidu could be a frontrunner; it is planning to launch its fleet of robotaxis in 2025.
Delivery vehicles and buses may be next in line for driverless technology, thanks to the fact they often run set routes day after day, allowing the AI technology to become an expert in every twist, turn and potential hazard in the road.
In Malaga, Spain, a self-driving bus electric bus is being trialled on a five-mile loop between the city’s port and centre. Meanwhile, earlier this month online retailer Ocado partnered with fellow British firm Oxbotica to build self-driving delivery vehicles, although it will be some years yet before these are on their way to customer homes.
Apple might be the first company to launch a car for consumers. Its Titan project has been working on producing a fully self-driving electric car since 2014, and according to reports is aiming to start production in 2024/5.
Tesla may give Apple a run for its money though; last summer founder Elon Musk said Tesla was “very close” to achieving full self-driving technology in one of its cars. But other experts warn self driving passenger cars could be 10-15 years away still.
And getting those cars out on the roads though depends on governments around the world changing regulations to allow for driverless technology. Although the UK government has made a start on that today, it could take decades before ministers are convinced the technology is safe enough to completely take over Britain’s roads.
