The first driverless public transport services on the UK’s roads will be in action by 2021, the government has announced, led by an autonomous bus service crossing the Forth estuary in Scotland, and self-driving taxis in up to four London boroughs.
The services should be on the roads within three years, under three pilot schemes announced by the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy. Full-sized driverless buses will run on a 14-mile route between Fife and Edinburgh, while Addison Lee and Jaguar Land Rover will lead two separate trials of driverless taxis in London before launching public services, again by 2021.
The Scottish driverless bus service could provide up to 10,000 journeys a week across the Forth road bridge. Five single-decker buses, carrying up to 42 passengers, will be converted from manually driven to autonomous vehicles. The scheme will involve organisations from across the UK and will be led by Fusion Processing, a technology company which specialises in sensors and control systems.
In London, Addison Lee and Oxbotica, a self-driving car software company, will build on trials already carried out in Greenwich to develop a series of increasingly complex routes. The two companies aim to have driverless taxis capable of going anywhere in the borough and available for public hire by 2021.
Addison Lee said autonomous vehicles could improve mobility, air quality and road safety in London. It plans to provide ridesharing services in low-emission cars through an app.
Jaguar Land Rover will also launch a “premium mobility service” in parts of the capital, using six autonomous Land Rover Discovery cars.
The schemes will share £25m in state funding as the government pledged to maintain a “world-leading” position in autonomous vehicles.
The business secretary, Greg Clark, said the projects, which are funded as part of the government’s industrial strategy, would ensure the UK built on its strengths in innovation. Speaking at the Oxford headquarters of Oxbotica, which has started mapping more than 250,000 miles of public roads in and around London, Clark said: “Self-driving cars will revolutionise the way we move goods and people around the UK. Autonomous vehicles and their technology will not only revolutionise how we travel, it will open up and improve transport services for those who struggle to access both private and public transport.
“The UK is building on its automotive heritage and strengths to develop the new vehicles and technologies and from 2021 the public will get to experience the future for themselves.”
The UK market for connected and autonomous vehicles is forecast to be worth up to £52bn by 2035, according to Jesse Norman, the minister for the future of mobility. He said: “This pioneering technology will bring significant benefits to people right across the country, improving mobility and safety, and driving growth across the UK.”
The UK established a centre for connected autonomous vehicles in 2015, with £250m of government investment, match-funded by industry, to push self-driving technology. The three projects will continue to be heavily research-oriented, with universities on board, including behavioural studies exploring how society will react driverless services.
Members of the public have already been able to try out autonomous pod vehicles in trials conducted in Greenwich and Milton Keynes. A limited numbers of autonomous cars have also been tested on the roads, but with drivers behind the wheel in case of emergency.
A driverless taxi was trialled in August in Tokyo, which hopes to have a fleet in place for the 2020 Olympics. The first fully autonomous service is expected to arrive in Phoenix, Arizona, where the Google spinoff Waymo plans to start operating driverless taxis as soon as December.
