The former Conservative government made bold plans during its dying days to bring driverless cars to UK roads by as soon as 2026. However, this will no longer be the case. The current Labour government has made the decision to push this plan and instead see driverless cars arriving by 2027 at the earliest.
This was confirmed by the Department for Transport to the BBC, in a statement that explains: "We are working quickly and will implement self-driving vehicle legislation in the second half of 2027. We are also exploring options for short-term trials and pilots to create the right conditions for a thriving self-driving sector."
This has led to some driverless car makers already making claims that this is perhaps too long a wait and that the technology is ready for implementation now. Uber's senior vice president of mobility, Andrew Macdonald, adds: "We're ready to launch robotaxis in the UK as soon as the regulatory environment is ready for us."
Driverless cars are becoming more common around the world, but they aren't yet a common technology everywhere yet, with the US and China leading the fray. The question now is whether 2027 remains the target or if that eventually gets pushed back once more.