Driverless cars for the UK in only four years

PLANS to boost funding for driverless cars will be unveiled by Theresa May today.

The Prime Minister will join Chancellor Philip Hammond and Business Secretary Greg Clark on a visit to the West Midlands to outline plans to invest an extra £80billion in general research and development over the coming decade.

Around £900million will go on driverless cars, which could become a regular sight on roads by 2021.

But campaigners warn of the risks of self-driving cars – and Jeremy Clarkson said yesterday that one had nearly killed him.

Jack Cousens, head of roads policy at the AA, said: ‘First of all, the technology of driverless cars has to be tested to the hilt, and then some, to ensure they are safe enough to be driven on our roads... Secondly, we need to get the infrastructure right.

‘What drivers would like to hear alongside this announcement is what money the Government is going to be spending on filling potholes on our roads – and not in a piecemeal way.’ Mr Hammond yesterday acknowledged the idea of allowing driverless cars on Britain’s roads within four years might seem optimistic, but added: ‘We have to take up these challenges if we want to see Britain leading the next industrial revolution.

‘We have a huge advantage across a whole range of new technologies that are going to transform our lives and if we want to ensure our prosperity in the post-Brexit world, we have got to embrace these new technologies, we’ve got to build the industries that will create the high-paying jobs of tomorrow and driverless vehicles is one of them.’

Other areas to be prioritised by the Government include artificial intelligence, clean energy, and data storage and management. Mrs May said last night that support for industries of this kind would ‘help businesses to create high-quality, well-paid jobs across the country’.

Ministers will also announce a £1.7billion plan to improve transport links between prosperous city centres and struggling suburbs, and commit to working with industry to boost spending on research and development to 2.4 per cent of GDP.

The announcements will feed into an industrial strategy due to be unveiled next week.

Writing in the Sunday Times, Clarkson claimed he was almost killed testing a driverless car.

The Grand Tour TV host said: ‘I drove a car the other day which has a claim of autonomous capability and twice in the space of 50 miles on the M4 it made a mistake, a huge mistake, which could have resulted in death.’

He did not identify the make or model of the car for legal reasons but said the incident convinced him the technology was a ‘very long way off’.