Self-driving cars get £30m bump start

Chancellor says autonomous vehicles be in
service on British roads by 2021

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While some cars can already assist with parking – in some cases
by doing the steering while the driver works the pedals – none are
able to control the whole process.

“Officials now estimate the driverless car industry will be
worth £28bn to the economy by 2035 and support as many as 27,000
jobs,” reports the Daily Mail.

There is keen competition between several nations, including the
UK and US, to get self-driving cars on the road. Chancellor Philip
Hammond set the 2021 target for full autonomous operation in his
autumn statement last year.

British tech firms are already developing the software needed to
make computers drive more like humans. Working in six different
towns and cities, FiveAI is focussing on helping them better
understand and anticipate the actions of other road users.

And Oxford-based Oxbotica, the company behind the trials of
driverless shuttles in Greenwich in 2017, is spending £12.6m on a
project which will address safety and other challenges by
co-ordinating robot drivers and let them learn from each other.

“For us, it’s all about moving from autonomous cars as single
entities to how they work together as a fleet,” chief executive
Graeme Smith told IT Pro.

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