England is the Latest Country to Allow Driverless Cars on its Roads

 Self Driving Cars  

The UK Autodrive project is rolling ahead and will soon bring driverless cars to the country.  The organization recently showed off its new autonomous vehicle, the LUTZ Pathfinder.

Although driverless cars are at least 15-20 years away from mass production, autonomous driving technology testing is in full swing in a couple of U.S. states, including California and Nevada, which are expected to be joined by Germany pretty soon. Now, England is looking to become the next country to allow driverless cars to be tested on its streets, as it tries to get at the forefront of developing autonomous vehicles, which are widely regarded as the future of driving.

Right after the UK government gave the green light for driverless cars to be tested on public roads, a new autonomous car was unveiled in Greenwich, London, as part of the UK Autodrive project run by UK's Transport System Catapult. The LUTZ Pathfinder (shown above), as it's called, is an electric-powered, fully-autonomous pod, which was designed by RDM Group, an advanced engineering company based in the English city of Coventry.

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It is a small car, that can only seat two, as it's only 55 inch wide and 66 inch tall, but is equipped with some incredibly sophisticated technology that allows it to drive by itself without risking colliding with pedestrians or other vehicles. Thanks to the 22 sensors and video cameras, including LIDAR (light detection and ranging) sensors, mounted on the rooftop and the rear end, the LUTZ Pathfinder can safely navigate city streets without posing a threat to pedestrian or driver safety.

The sensors scan the car's surroundings, whereas the radars are used for detecting other moving objects. Also, there are cameras that keep track of pedestrians and traffic lights, and lastly, infra-red sensors help bring the car to a stop or slow it down if they sense that a collision is imminent.

The car is powered by a lithium-ion phosphate battery pack, that is enough for a range of 40 miles, and can be fully recharged in about 4 hours. The car is able to reach a top speed of 15 mph, because it's not designed to drive on streets with high traffic density.

The pod will be tested in Milton Keynes, a town in Buckinghamshire, England, transporting people around town, with a licensed driver behind the wheel, who will be able to take control of the vehicle in case there is a software malfunction. After the trials end, in a couple of months, a fleet of these pods could be deployed as part of the public transportation system, presumably to provide shuttle service.

This is just one of a series of driverless car projects supported by the UK government, which has allotted nearly $30 million towards funding similar programs aimed at testing autonomous driving technology and determining how safe driverless car prototypes are and whether they are able to comply with existing traffic laws, as well as insurance requirements in the country. Other projects funded by the government will be launched in Bristol, Coventry and London. The government intends to introduce new legislation that will regulate the use of driverless cars by 2017.

By Jordan Perch

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Author Bio - Jordan Perch is an automotive fanatic and “safe driving” specialist. He is a writer for DMV.com, which is a collaborative community designed to help ease the stress and annoyance of “dealing with the DMV”