Self-driving Nissan LEAFs will hit London streets next month

If autonomous cars are to be made available in the UK, car makers first need their vehicles to do hard miles on domestic roads. Nissan knows this, so today it confirmed that it will deploy a fleet of LEAF vehicles in London next month, giving it the opportunity to publicly test its autonomous drive technology for the first time in Europe. Nissan says that while it hasn't yet finalised the routes its cars will take, they "will be public roads with full agreement from the relevant local authorities." The government, which has already spent millions funding intelligent car trials, supports the pilot, noting that such trials will help the UK become "a world leader in the development and testing of auto technology." It's not the first time Nissan has demonstrated its self-driving capabilities on public roads. The first tests began in Tokyo in October 2015, expanding to Silicon Valley in January 2016.