The UK government gives the go ahead for self-driving autonomous cars in 2016 and 2017
Later in the year, several manufacturers will show off their driverless cars in Nuneaton and it will be followed by on road trials. To rival a joint venture of Mercedes, BMW and VW in Germany, in the UK a group have set up Autodrive. The group made up of Jaguar Land Rover, Ford and Tata motors are already running cars that communicate with each other.
The exchange of information will lead to reductions in snarl ups, accidents and will offer additional real-time information for satellite navigation. This will have knock on effects of improved fuel consumptions, reduced emissions and eventually changes to how we pay to drive.
The first places to run the tests will be Coventry and Milton Keynes. The roads in the areas are well suited to auto recognition of signs and forward planning during development has included traffic light systems that will work seamlessly with autonomous cars.
More accurate geo-location with the European Satellites due to come on stream, will mean probable collisions can be spotted earlier and avoided, details of this are yet to be revealed.
All of this should also lead to reduced insurance premiums, with the end game being zero collisions.
The investment in self-driving cars have been prolificand it show now signs of slowing down. We have yet to get any indication of how this will be reflected in lease and contract hire figures. But safer, cheaper to insurer sounds good to Fast Used Cars…
