Self-driving cars could be on British streets for the first time within weeks after the government confirmed it will soon start issuing licenses to firms that want to test them.
Fleets of autonomous taxis are intended to be made available in some UK cities by the end of next year – bringing the country in line with the US where driverless vehicles have been on the roads for some time.
Three companies are planning to launch trials of their vehicles as soon as possible after a permitting scheme comes into force in the spring of this year.
The start date for fully self-driving taxis to be commercially available in the UK has been repeatedly delayed, but the Department for Transport says that it is now on track.
Vehicles have already been tested in this country for some time, but at the moment they require a safety driver who can take control of the car in case of an emergency. Soon there will be no safety driver, with only the car's own sensors and software monitoring the roads and responding automatically where necessary.
A pilot scheme will launch some time between March and April, beginning in London and probably some other cities, a transport minister has confirmed. Companies taking part will need permission from local councils and to obey strict safety rules.
The Government will monitor the scheme to help inform the regulations which will be finalized over the course of this year and come into force in 2027, ahead of the full roll-out of self-driving taxis.
Companies which have expressed interest in deploying their cars in London include US-based Waymo, which is the main operator of autonomous fleets in its home country, British firm Wayve and Chinese operator Baidu.
Transport minister Peter Hendy said last week in a written answer to a question in the House of Lords: “The Government intends to introduce the Automated Passenger Services (APS) permitting scheme in spring 2026 to regulate self-driving taxi-and private-hire-like and bus-like services.
“Self-driving vehicles intended for use within a commercial APS fleet will need to undergo an assessment, by the Vehicle Certification Agency (VCA), to demonstrate that they can safely drive themselves at all times. The initial roll-out of automated services is expected to be more small-scale, and we anticipate that automated services can complement human-driven services.”
There is no immediate prospect of self-driving cars being available for individuals to buy, because it is considered significantly more complex to establish a legal framework for liability in case of accidents when autonomous vehicles are owned by individuals instead of companies.
While self-driving taxis have proven popular in the American cities where they are available, such as Los Angeles and San Francisco, some experts have cast doubt on whether they will work as well on the narrow and more unpredictable streets of a densely populated country such as Britain.
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Rides with Waymo tend to be more expensive than the services of comparable taxi firms such as Uber, although the price gap appears to be shrinking.
Most evidence suggests that self-driving cars are safer than vehicles driven by a human because of the automatic safety features they contain and the more predictable way that computers drive compared to people. However, there have been a number of accidents involving autonomous vehicles, including some fatalities.
Supporters of the technology argue that it will lead to clearer roads because fewer people will own a car if they know they have easy access to an autonomous taxi at any time.
