Car travels 230 miles without a driver

A self-driving Nissan car has completed a journey from Cranfield in Bedfordshire to Sunderland; the longest trip ever made by an autonomous vehicle in the UK.

As part of a project called Human Drive, the electric Nissan Leaf travelled 230 miles from the car giant’ s technical centre to its Washington factory.

It negotiated motor ways, roundabouts, country lanes with no road markings, junctions and anything that a human driver would have to deal with.

It changed lanes, merged, stopped and started whenever necessary; although it carried two human passengers who were ready to take the controls if necessary.

The Leaf uses GPS, radar, laser scanning and camera technology to build up a perception of the world around it.

It then makes decisions about how to navigate the roads and obstacles on a journey.

The project, led by Nissan as part of a consortium, is partly government-funded project and it has taken 30 months to get to this stage.

The global market for self driving vehicles is expected to be worth many billions of pounds in the coming years.

Business Minister, Nadhim Zahawi said: “Safely completing the longest autonomous drive in Britain is an incredible achievement for Nissan and the Human Drive consortium, and a huge step towards the rollout of driverless cars on UK streets.

“This project is a shining example of how the automotive industry, working with government, can drive forward technology to benefit people’s mobility, while helping to slash carbon emissions .”