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."
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