Highway Code rewritten to accommodate driverless cars
The Highway Code is to be updated to allow driverless vehicles to take to the streets of Britain for the first time following a decision by the UK government to support the nascent technology.
Science minister David Willetts has said he plans to push for new laws to facilitate the driverless revolution and is in talks with the Department of Transport to rewrite the Highway Code.
This follows the development of driverless technology at Oxford University which could give Britain a global lead. Speaking to the Daily Mail Willetts said: “There is British technology, and it's a lot cheaper than the Google technology.
’But whereas the Google car, they have notched up more miles, so we have got to ensure that the British has its own opportunity to get tested in a wider range of environments and that's what we are working on with the department for transport.”
It follows the development of a self-driving car by Google which relies on GPS and Google Maps for navigation, negating the need for a human driver.
The computerised prototype does away with a steering wheel, brake and accelerator, replacing them with buttons to start, pullover and a monitor displaying the route and is ready for testing in California this summer.