Self-Driving Cars Will Soon Fill Up U.K. Roads!

With all of the talk circulating around about self-driving cars, did you really think you’d see the day when we really started using them? Indeed, even with all of the technology at our hands today, an autonomous vehicle seems like such a lofty concept. It’s so hard to imagine everything we’ve come used to associating with vehicles, such as steering wheels and rear view mirrors, possibly being replaced with a small button labeled “stop/go”. And I guess something else besides getting your driver’s license will have to become a rite of passage when kids (at least in the U.S.) turn 16 years-old – since the cars will be doing a heck of a lot more work than the “driver”. That does bring up an interesting point – will Driver’s Education classes remain the same? Will we still have to know every rule of the road before we get behind the wheel that no longer exists? Something tells me Driver’s Ed. might get a little bit easier.

All that to say that self-driving vehicles will take over the roads before you know it, and starting in January of 2015, they will be allowed on the public roads of the U.K.

The U.K. Government recently announced that they’d like 3 different cities to host a self-driving vehicle contest of sorts, to help get this whole autonomous vehicle thing up and running.

In case you’re wondering how a car can drive itself, they take full advantage of LIDAR technology (light detection and ranging) to get an accurate depiction of their surroundings on the road. They also use existing cruise control and lane assistance as well as acceleration and braking assistance. However, it’s expected these “assistances” will move more to the forefront down the road, with human drivers doing less and less.

What do you think? Does this news about self-driving cars excite you at all? Let us know your thoughts regarding this story in the comments section below!

SOURCE-TECH-BEAT