Google’s self-driving cars are making their way to the U.K.
The company has been in talks with the U.K. Department of Transport for the past couple of years and, according to the Telegraph, it appears as if driverless cars will soon be tested on some of Britain’s public roads. So far they have only been tested in California, Texas, and Washington. This would be the company’s first international test.
Sarah Hunter, Google X’s head of policy, told British officials in one of their numerous meetings that the U.K’s “non-regulatory approach” makes it a good spot for testing “and could be seen as the best example of practice.” As long as the driverless cars are covered by insurance, they can drive on any public road in the U.K.
Eric Schmidt, executive chairman of Google parent company Alphabet, appears to be very confident that self-driving cars will soon be the standard. “Eventually you will all be in a self-driving car in some form or another,” he told the Telegraph. “The car has better vision than you, it can see 360 degrees, and it doesn’t get drunk. So that has to be an improvement.”
Google has been working on autonomous vehicle technology for over six years now and its cars have driven more than 1.4 million miles.