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There is a lot of talk about driverless cars being the future of transport.
But if you are dying to find out what it’s like to drive an autonomous car, you don’t have to wait for another five years to find out.
London has opened the doors to the UK’s first public trial of autonomous vehicles.
That means if you are in the UK, you can register with GATEway (Greenwich Automated Transport Environment) and take a ride around London’s Greenwich area in a self-driving electric car.
In return, you’ll be invited to share your views on the experience and, if you want, take part in workshops to discuss the future of automated transport.
“The move to automated vehicles is probably the most significant change in transport since the transition from horse-drawn carriages to motorised vehicles,” said professor Nick Reed, director at the UK’s Transport Research Laboratory (TRL) and technical lead of the GATEway project.
“Testing these vehicles in a living environment, like the UK Smart Mobility Living Lab, takes the concept from fiction to reality.”
Led by the TRL, the trials are being conducted at the UK Smart Mobility Living Lab in Greenwich.
However, these transport vehicles don’t look like conventional cars at all, but resemble small shuttle pods.
These pods can steer themselves on the road and dodge obstacles, although it hasn’t been confirmed whether they will actually venture onto public roads.
So how does it work?
As part of the trial, the cars will first be driven around by a human driver so the routes can be mapped in 3D.
Then using sensors, cameras, built-in lasers and the 3D map, the car will find its way round while detecting pedestrians, obstacles and hazards.
The GATEway trial is an £8 million project for autonomous cars led by TRL and jointly funded by Innovate UK and industry.
The move comes after the Government pledged to allow driverless vehicles on British motorways by 2020, with semi-autonomous Volvo XC90s set to hit the streets in London as early as next year.
