Consortium wants to test driverless cars on motorways

Driverless cars could be zooming up and down the country’s roads and motorways within the next two years, if a consortium of British businesses was to be believed on Monday.

The ‘Driven’ consortium said it planned to test a fleet of autonomous vehicles on the route between London and Oxford.

It said the cars would trial a technology whereby they “talked” to each other about upcoming hazards and conditions.

The cars would operate at almost 100% autonomy, but Driven said they would still have a capable human on board for the trial.

Driven was led by driverless vehicle software maker Oxbotica, and founded by Oxford University professor Paul Newman.

“We're moving from the singleton autonomous vehicle to fleets of autonomous vehicles,” Newman commented.

“What's interesting is what data the vehicles share with one another, when, and why.”

The project was supported by an £8.6m government grant, with an insurance firm also onboard to assess the risks along the way.

Tests of driverless cars in the UK so far have generally been slow and on private test tracks, away from real-world conditions.