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Autonomous Vehicles to be Driven on London’s Roads Before Christmas

Autonomous Vehicles to be Driven on London’s Roads Before Christmas

​As we mentioned a couple of weeks ago on a previous blog, electric vehicles are closer than we may presume. In the lead up to Christmas, autonomous vehicle trails are set to be carried out by a government-backed consortium across London’s roads. This development will begin across Hounslow as a starting point for the consortium’s ambition to have a fully-functioning fleet of driverless-cars making journeys between London and Oxford into the new year.

These vehicles will map the streets of London, allowing them to understand road signs, lane marketing and levels of heavy traffic. While this all sounds like a crazy proposition for most, it gets even more technical; the autonomous fleet of vehicles will be able to share data with one another, such as warnings of obstacles in the road. This will improve how vehicles perform under different conditions on the road around the year.

Highly-respected brands in the industry such as Addison Lee, have partnered with driverless car pioneers to form a fleet of vehicles in London by 2021. The partnership could eventually allow Addison Lee’s fleet of black Mercedes and Prius taxis to be self-driving. At current, the Euston-based firm employs around 5,000 drivers across London. It has been confirmed by the firm that these drivers will remain employed, offering a cheaper, autonomous ride-sharing version of its hire service. Transport for London has commented over the last few days, quoting that it is committed to engaging with additional firms using driver-less vehicle technology at the earliest opportunity.

While we can’t provide autonomous vehicles ourselves, our telematics service, MarshallMatics provides industry-leading tracking for the fleet market. Our solutions provide organisations with the insights they need to improve performance, worker safety, discover cost-savings and stay compliant with regulations. To find out more on the Marshall Leasing way of doing things, please visit our website here.

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