Driverless cars will also make humans safer and cut out the number of accidents caused by basic human errors such as losing attention behind the wheel, according to the source. The DRIVEN initiative claims to use research, development and testing to remove barriers to the development of driverless vehicles. The initiative successfully ran a fleet of cars around the Olympic Park at the start of October to test how they reacted to a challenging and complex environment. The revolutionary vehicles use technology from tech firm Oxbotica which identifies hazards in the road in just 1/2,000th of a second.
The creators claim the technology can run on everyday computer hardware and can be easily applied to road vehicles.
Speaking exclusively to Express.co.uk, Oxbotica founder Paul Newman says it could take a decade before there could be the same number of driverless cars on the road as human-driven vehicles.
However, he claims technology advances could mean fleets of vehicles could be operating in major cities in just a couple of years as alternative modes of transport.
He said: “I think, quite soon in some years, maybe two to three years, you will start to see fleets of vehicles operating in some areas in cities as new forms of transport.
Nevertheless, Newman added that it won’t mean “replacing the car you may own” or people saying in three years: “Hey, I wanna buy a car with no steering wheel or no windscreen.”
A recent study by vehicle comparison site carwow found a generational shift in attitudes on driverless vehicles as younger generations said they would embrace the new technology.
A staggering 81 percent of 18-24-year-olds said they would use a driverless vehicle.
In comparison, 83 percent of those between the ages of 55 and 64 said they would be against using the machines.
The survey of 1,000 motorists revealed nearly half were against the idea of driverless vehicles due to a lack of trust.
However, Oxbotica founder Paul Newman says autonomous vehicles could be safer than traditional cars because they cut out the risk of human errors.
Speaking to Express.co.uk, he said: [The vehicles] simply don’t make the mistakes humans do of inattention, [people] just lose focus but it is not possible to distract our vehicles because you have a screaming three-year-old in the back seat.
“Do I believe this technology will make us safer? Yes, just in the way seatbelts and ABS technology does improve safety.”
He added: “I just do not believe for all time we will be sitting polluting, having accidents and getting tired moving inefficiently. It just doesn’t make sense that for all-time we will be sitting behind steering wheels unable to do other things because we are human.”
Oxbotica’s technological breakthrough comes months after the Department for Transport revealed they wanted to see autonomous vehicles hit Britain’s roads by 2021.
The government estimates self-driving technology could be worth a massive £52billion by 2035.
In a statement, George Freeman, Minister of State at the Department for Transport said they would support innovation, research and the trailing of exciting new technology.
He added: “Self-driving technology has the scope to revolutionise the way people travel, with potentially profound benefits for road safety, accessibility and convenience.
“We want to drive the roll-out of self-driving vehicles and continue to support innovators developing this ground-breaking technology.”