In its latest annual Budget, the UK Government has approved plans to trial driverless lorries and other vehicles, such as cars, on its road over the coming years.
As part of the new plans, "lorry platooning" will be trialled on UK roads. This is where vehicles form a convoy, with a lorry that has a human driver in front of it. However, as part of the plans, not only lorries will see trials.
By 2017 driverless cars will also be trialled on UK roads.
Many trials for autonomous vehicles have taken place in California, particularly so with the likes of Google; however, the British government wants to see more of these trials taking place in the UK, with the government saying that it wants the UK to be a "global centre for excellence in connected and autonomous vehicles".
Edmund King, president of major UK roadside recovery firm, the AA, raised concerns on the possibility of lorry platooning being possible on the UKs motorway network, citing one issue:
The problem with the UK motorway network is that we have more entrances and exits of our motorways than any other motorways in Europe or indeed the world," he said earlier in March.
Therefore it"s very difficult to have a 44 tonne 10-lorry platoon, because other vehicles need to get past the platoon to enter or exit the road.
The government, so far, has not commented on these concerns.
Source: BBC News |Image: Highway view from vehicle via Shutterstock