While recently attending meetings with his counterparts from the G7 countries, Anthony Foxx, US Secretary of Transportation, said he’s very optimistic that driverless cars will be in use all over the world in ten years. Foxx said governments must work with the auto industry and speed up the usually slow pace of regulatory approval. Foxx also said more investments are needed in infrastructure through public-private partnerships.
Recent evidence of the global drive toward the use of autonomous vehicles is the testing of a driverless car in the UK that began October 11, 2016. While only one car is currently being used in the tests in Milton Keynes, a large town in Buckinghamshire, England, the team behind it hopes to have at least 40 of the vehicles available to the public next year.
This is in addition to other trials being carried out in Bristol and London where autonomous vehicles will be available to the public in the coming months. Business and Energy Secretary Greg Clark said that these “first public trials of driverless vehicles in our towns is a ground-breaking moment and further evidence that Britain is at the forefront of innovation.”
