ARE WE READY FOR DRIVERLESS CARS?

ALL YOU NEED TO KNOW ABOUT THE AUTONOMOUS CAR REVOLUTION.

- Tom Jervis Thomas

ARTIFICIAL intelligence' and 'driverless cars' — terms that tend to make people excited and uncomfortable in equal measure. Both go hand-in-hand, with Al powering the most advanced self-driving vehicle systems, using machine learning to help it overcome tricky situations and manoeuvres.

Yet, while autonomous technology has long been the subject of science fiction and/or very limited trials in controlled conditions, the reality of driverless cars populating our roads could now be just around the corner.

That’s thanks to a raft of new legislation that, from spring 2026, will enable a handful of autonomous taxi firms to begin offering limited driverless rides. The likes of Uber and Waymo, which both operate services abroad (mainly in the US), have announced plans to enter the UK market, specifically in Greater London, as part of this phased introduction.

Tesla also recently released videos showing a Model 3 driving unassisted around a number of cities, including London and Paris. The US brand hopes to offer its Full Self-Driving system (FSD) in the future, when legislation catches up with the technology. FSD uses Al to help the car find its way out of an unmapped car park, for example, but is yet to be given the green light for public use in the UK.

WHAT IS THE AUTOMATED VEHICLES ACT?

BEFORE we get ahead of ourselves, though, it’s important to explain the laws enabling this autonomous revolution. The Automated Vehicles Act 2024 was introduced under Rishi Sunak's Conservative Government and allows predesignated ‘authorised self-driving entities’ (ASDE) to legally operate self-driving taxi services on public roads.