Driverless cars to debut on UK roads later this year

The family car as we know it could soon be a thing of the past. In the face of rapid urbanisation, rising fuel costs and environmental concerns, experts are exploring new technologies in urban transportation.

Driverless cars, enhanced electric vehicles, and 'smarter' cars which occupy the equivalent of one-fifth of a standard car space, are under development while governments create incentives for using 'greener transportation.'

They may actually be seen on roads in the UK later this year, during extensive test drives.

A report from the secretary of state for transport Patrick McLoughlin titled, "Action for roads: a network for the 21st century. English road network improvement plans", says driverless cars should be tested before the end of this year.

The highway is meeting the information superhighway, say commentators. McLoughlin talks of "new, improved motorways for the information age" that build on "pioneering managed motorway schemes to tackle congestion'' and adds, the government would take the technology, which had only been used on specific links, and apply it as a standard to some of the busiest national routes in the country.

According to the report, driverless cars, or semi-autonomous vehicles, had already been tested with some success, including one trial in Oxford involving a sort of wagon trail of Nissan motorcars.

"Researchers at Oxford University are currently working with Nissan to use this technology to create semi-autonomous cars. These vehicles will have a driver present but are capable of driving fully independently, using knowledge of the environment in which they are driving," the report added.

The trials conducted on autonomous vehicles in the UK had so far taken place only on private land.

Driverless cars are guided by a system of sensors and cameras and are considered potentially safer and more efficient than regular vehicles.

However, to take care of emergencies a back-up driver would ride along during the tests.

The plans have been unveiled in a blueprint by the Department for Transport, as part of a £28 billion investment in British roads to cut congestion. According to the report, driverless vehicles would be able to drive on their own "using knowledge of the environment in which they are driving".

"They maintain a safe distance from the vehicle in front at a set speed and without deviating from their lane - all without the driver's input," said the report.

For now, the cars will be driven on lightly-used rural and suburban roads in a "semi-autonomous" mode which gives human passengers the choice to intervene.

These cars are under development at the Oxford Martin School. Dr James Martin, founder of the Oxford Martin School, says the benefits from technologies such as driverless cars would have the potential to reduce of road accidents.

However, he points out that such cars would benefit from purpose built road networks that would interact with the vehicles. He believes that the high costs associated with the latest technologies will quickly be reduced thanks to advances in new technology and reducing software costs.They would be tested by the same team of Oxford University researchers that had worked on development of autonomous car technology on an adapted Nissan Leaf.

in an unrelated effort, search giant Google is also in the forefront of developing driverless cars. The Google driverless car involves developing technology for robotic cars. The project is currently being led by Google engineer Sebastian Thrun, director of the Stanford Artificial Intelligence Laboratory and co-inventor of Google Street View.

Google has been lobbying for robotic car laws, and the US state of Nevada passed a law on 29 June 2011 permitting the operation of autonomous cars in Nevada.