London's first driverless cars will be these airport-style pods
If you hadn't noticed, the autonomous
motoring revolution is almost upon us, and the first self-driving cars to
arrive on the streets of London are going to be based on the shuttle pods
currently in use at Heathrow Airport.
The adapted vehicles will be involved in
limited trials in Bristol, Coventry and Milton Keynes as well as Greenwich in
south-east London. Unlike the ones at Heathrow Airport, they'll be free from
tracks - although a steward is going to be on board at all times to stop the
pods in an emergency.
British firms Westfield Sportscars, Heathrow
Enterprises and Oxbotica are working together to adapt the Heathrow UltraPODS for
use on real streets in a project that's expected to cost £8m. The testing
begins in July and will run for three months.
Podding along
According to their makers, the pods in use at
Heathrow have transported 1.5 million passengers in the last five years and
covered around 1.8 million miles. At first only a select number of invited
passengers will be able to hop on board, but the pods are going to be open to
the general public before the end of their trial run.
The electric cars will connect to the cloud
to report their position at all times and avoid crashing into one another. The
routes are going to link residential areas, local businesses and transport
hubs, helping Londoners scoot from one place to another without having to get
behind the wheel.
"It will tell us whether people trust
and accept these vehicles and how they would work as part of the urban
landscape," Professor Nick Reed, one of the project's directors, told the
BBC. "This vehicle has millions of miles under its belt and now we have to
take it outside of the track and modify it for use on pavements."
