Public roads in London will become a test bed for autonomous vehicles early next year, the car manufacturer Volvo has announced. It says that ‘real families’ will be testing the self driving vehicles in what it describes as the UK’s most ambitious autonomous driving trial to date.

Volvo says the technology promises to massively reduce car accidents as well as free up congested roads, cut air pollution and allow drivers to spend time on other things while behind the wheel.

“Autonomous driving represents a leap forward in car safety,” said the car company’s president Håkan Samuelsson. “The sooner these cars are on the roads, the sooner lives will start being saved.”

The ‘Drive Me London’ project will start with a limited number of semi-autonomous vehicles and by 2018 is to include up to 100 such cars.

Volvo claims that autonomous vehicles have the potential to reduce the number of car accidents by up to 30%. Nine out of 10 accidents are currently caused by driver error or distraction, it adds, something that should largely disappear with autonomous cars.

At a conference in London yesterday to discuss the insurance liabilities of autonomous vehicles Håkan Samuelsson said that car companies must accept full responsibility if such vehicles are involved in accidents. “We don’t believe it is a bold statement to say that if the system malfunctions it is our problem.” Otherwise, he warned, “you shouldn’t be in this business”.

Motor insurance research centre Thatcham’s chief executive Peter Shaw told the conference that autonomous vehicles represent “the biggest revolution in vehicle safety” since cars were invented.

(Photo: Volvo)