Driverless cars are being tested on Bristol’s roads this week!

The dream of having an automatic chauffeur to ferry you around wherever you wish has got a step closer to reality with the BAE System-developed Wildcat vehicle, pictured on the right.

Driverless commuting

With the average UK-driver spending up to 6 weeks every year commuting by car, this exciting development will hopefully mean that we will one day be able to save ourselves the driving stress involved in the daily commute.

You can see the car being put through its paces in Bristol in the video below:

Via: The Bristol Post

As well as the trial in Bristol, a transport shuttle in Greenwich and a driverless pod in Milton Keynes is also being tested.

Transport Minister Claire Perry said, “These are still early days but today is an important step. The trials present a fantastic opportunity for this country to take a lead internationally in the development of this new technology.”

“The trials present a fantastic opportunity for this country to take a lead internationally in the development of this new technology”

 

Positive outlook

There have been some sceptics in regard to the implementation of driverless cars in cities like Bristol, but the outlooks from the engineers and scientists involved in these projects seems very positive. Head of Vehicle Technology at BAE, Anthony Waldock, told the Bristol Post:

“I personally think we will get to a position where the technology will blend with human driving. Technology where it allows you to know you are making a dangerous manoeuvre and ultimately make people safer drivers.”

Interested in getting involved yourself? You can see and analysis of the existing legal and regulatory situation for testing, producing and marketing highly and fully automated vehicles in the UK in a recently published Department of Transport policy paper: Driverless cars in the UK: a regulatory review.

[Image credit: Department of Transport]

 

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