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Autonomous vehicles were nothing more than a dreamt-up idea, a far reach from reality… Well that was 10 years ago. Driverless cars are amongst us as we speak, now with almost every manufacturer offering some form of autonomy in just about every model of car offered. This year we have tested a range of cars everything from the humble hatchbacks such as the Nissan Micra to the compact executive Volvo V40 both of them having aids such as adaptive cruise control and autonomous braking.
Admittedly these cars are not fully driverless but with the advancements in these technologies as seen in the Tesla vehicles a full autonomous experience is closer than you think!
 
 
The news has broken revealing that UK insurance laws will be overhauled to ensure all parties are covered in any accident involving autonomous vehicles. This movement really does show that vehicle autonomy isn’t going anywhere. This has been in a effort to provide the reassurance to road users that they will be covered when they are behind the wheel of something which they may not have sole control over. What is being dubbed as a “revolution” to the industry, if these technological applications were applied and utilised a vast arrange of life changing benefits could be experienced. Evidently this would help the elderly and disabled, however other benefits could include better road safety, reductions in accidents and reduced congestion. 
 
An estimated 10 million autonomous vehicles are set to hit the road for 2020, this to then grow to 76 million by 2035. It is believed that these types of cars will be able to navigate congested cities as early as 2022. The backing from the industry with more and more manufacturers jumping on board as their insurance changes, it isn’t too difficult to believe this could be a reality. The main hurdle is the trust by consumers. 
 
 
Next week the Planet Auto team are getting behind the wheel of the Tesla Model S. This will be our chance to test one of the most autonomous vehicles to date. We will be tackling city and country driving in 200 mile round trip to see what the car is really like on the open road. We also look forward to testing the latest systems from Volvo and Nissan next year.
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Northern Group of Motoring Writers NGMW

Northern Group Of Motoring Writers

Annabelle Quirk Vice Chairwoman
Ben D T Quirk Member