In order to make it so that self-driving cars can become legal and available to the masses, a lot of testing needs to be done, and usually testing involves taking the self-driving cars on the road and testing them out in real-life conditions. That’s what pretty much all companies have been doing, but a self-driving group in the UK wants to take it to the extreme with a 200-mile test.Dubbed the HumanDrive initiative, it seems that this project might take a while before it takes off. There are plans to simulate a range of conditions first before it embarks on its journey which is scheduled to take place in December 2019, but so far it seems to have been well-received.
According to the Business and Energy Secretary Greg Clark, “Low-carbon and self-driving vehicles are the future and they are going to drive forward a global revolution in mobility. Trailblazing projects like the HumanDrive project will play a vital role helping us deliver on that ambition.”
The project is a collaboration between several carmakers such as Groupe Renault, Nissan and Mitsubishi, in addition to other educational institutions and organizations, like Cranfield University and Highways England. Mark Westwood, chief technology officer of the Transport Systems Catapult who is also involved in the project adds, “UK roads throw up some particular challenges. They are different from American roads, with roundabouts and demanding country lanes. These are really testing environments.”
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