The Chancellor George Osborne will allow driverless cars to share the roads of the UK by 2020, according to plans that were recently announced.
The news will be very welcome for Google, which hopes that the UK will be a key market for its self-driving cars. Trials will be allowed on a small number of roads later on this year, to be follwed by tests on motorways and main roads next year, to make sure that the vehicles are safe enough for widespread use.
Rules which currently prohibit autonomous driving on motorways would need to be scrapped, which the Chancellor plans to propose this summer. Osborne is keen for the UK to become a global leader in the driverless car market, which could be worth £900bn worldwide within ten years.
Google has already had five meetings with the government in the last two years, it emerged in December. The company's driverless vehicles are fitted with sensors that use laser technology to detect the position of pedestrians and other road users.
Experts suggest that the introduction of driverless vehicles could eventually lead to the elimination of 95 percent of accidents on the road.
The Chancellor said of the plans: "At a time of great uncertainty in the global economy, Britain must take bold decisions now to ensure it leads the world when it comes to new technologies and infrastructure.
"Driverless cars could represent the most fundamental change to transport since the invention of the internal combustion engine. Naturally we need to ensure safety, and that is what the trials we are introducing will test."
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