Driverless Cars to take over British Roads soon

Driverless cars will replace normal cars on British roads within a decade from now.  Some pilot ones are being tested in certain parts of the United Kingdom including in South east London. However, some people are alarmed over this news and think that allowing driverless cars on the roads could result in unintended consequences for road users but I do not think that this is necessarily going to be the case.

Driverless vehicles have been transporting people from one point to another both in the United Kingdom and abroad.  The Docklands Light Railway (DLR) in London for example is a driverless metro train service that came into operation in 1987.  The Copenhagen Metro and Barcelona Metro are also driverless trains operating in Denmark and Spain respectively.  Many commuters using these train services will be shocked to discover that the trains are driverless.

So far the use of these driverless trains has been progressing smoothly.  There have been no major computer failure associated with the trains resulting in fatalities.  This trend is likely to continue especially with further advancement in automated technologies in the future.

However, before driverless cars start plying on British roads in the same way that driverless trains do on rail tracks it is important for policy makers to address certain concerns about the vehicles.  These include addressing the issue of liability if a driverless car jumps a red light or if a person is killed or property is damaged by the vehicle.