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Self-driving vehicles to be available for purchase as early as next year

26 September 2022

The UK government has announced £100 million in funding to introduce self-driving vehicles to our roads by 2025 and vehicles with self-driving features as early as next year.

Safety research will be supported by £34 million of the funding and £20 million will go to kick-starting commercial self-driving services. Further market research and commercialisation will be funded by £6 million of the investment.  

It is expected that vehicles with self-driving features could be purchased by UK driving licence holders within the next year and that public transport or delivery via self-driving vehicles could be available by 2025.

Transport Secretary Grant Shapps said, “The benefits of self-driving vehicles have the potential to be huge. Not only can they improve people’s access to education and other vital services, but the industry itself can create tens of thousands of job opportunities throughout the country.

“Most importantly, they’re expected to make our roads safer by reducing the dangers of driver error in road collisions.

“We want the UK to be at the forefront of developing and using this fantastic technology, and that is why we are investing millions in vital research into safety and setting the legislation to ensure we gain the full benefits that this technology promises.”

Safety legislation for self-driving vehicles will ‘build on existing laws’ and transfer responsibility for ‘vehicles’ actions’ to manufacturers, rather than the human driver.

You can read the full press release from the Department for Transport here.

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