The Department for Transport has released a code of practice for operating highly and fully automated vehicles on British roads. Driverless cars being tested on public roads will need to carry a human driver who is capable of manually taking control of the vehicles and will need to be fitted with a ‘black box’ style data recorder that will allow accident investigators to determine the cause of any accidents.

Google’s driverless cars have now travelled over 1.7 million miles without their autonomous systems causing an accident. Yet another technological advancement for black cab drivers to look forward too…

A review by the Department for Transport into issues surrounding the introduction of driverless cars onto British roads, has recommended that they be disguised as normal cars so as not to spook other drivers. A recent survey found that 43% of British drivers don’t trust driverless cars  to drive safely and 16% say they are horrified by the idea.

While admitting that there is “an argument for other road users being warned in advance of such testing and provided with information and reassurance about how the testing will affect them,” the DoT recommend that the automated test vehicles soon to be driving on our streets  are not marked in a way which would enable them to be “easily distinguished to prevent  unusual reactions from other road users.” Test vehicles in the US, such as those belonging to Google’s Self-Driving Car program, are easily recognisable from their markings and exposed sensor equipment.

The robots are coming, whether you notice or not…