UK kicks off driverless car law review to get tech on the road by 2021

In 2021 the UK government intends the country to be well on its way to a driverless future. No, not a cheap joke about Brexit -- yesterday it announced a three-year regulatory review to "pave the way for self-driving cars". This follows the budget, in November, when the government announced a tranche of funding for technology innovations -- including AI and driverless cars -- and said it wants to establish a looser framework for testing self-driving vehicles "without a safety operator" with the stated aim of getting driverless cars on the roads by 2021. The law review meshes with that goal, though the government is clearly giving itself a very tight timetable for resolving regulatory complications and passing the necessary legislation. The myriad technological challenges of ensuring autonomous vehicles can operate safety and efficiently in all weather conditions are really just one portion of the challenge here.