A UK minister has reassured the motor industry that buyers of driverless cars will not have to employ a gentleman with a red flag and top hat as he outlined a UK testbed for autonomous vehicles yesterday. Speaking at the SMTT Connected conference in London, industry secretary Greg Clark outlined a "cluster of excellence" stretching from London to, er, Birmingham into which the government will direct its support in its efforts to establish the UK as a leader in autonomous vehicles. Clark will be giving the area a boost in the coming weeks with announcement of the first tranche of funding from a £100m investment programme for the creation of test facilities for connected and autonomous vehicles. The cluster roughly corresponds to the M40 corridor, and auto history buffs will recognise it as the resting place of British motoring brand names - it's no coincidence that the British Motor Museum is just off the M40. But while the memory of British Leyland et al might be fading from the collective consciousness, Clark banged the drum for the UK's contribution in the autonomous and connected vehicle space.