A consortium of British companies has unveiled a plan to test driverless cars on UK roads and motorways in 2019. The Driven group also plans to try out a fleet of autonomous vehicles between London and Oxford.

A consortium of British companies has unveiled a plan to test driverless cars on UK roads and motorways in 2019. The Driven group also plans to try out a fleet of autonomous vehicles between London and Oxford. The cars will communicate with each other about any hazards and should operate with almost full autonomy - but will have a human on board as well. Previous tests of driverless vehicles in the UK have mainly taken place at slow speeds and not on public roads. The Driven consortium is led by Oxbotica, which makes software for driverless vehicles.

Britain could soon become a hotbed for driverless car testing, according to UK Transport Secretary Chris Grayling. New laws set to be rolled out next month will rule who is to blame if an autonomous vehicle crashes. It is hoped that the move will allow the UK to become a'world leader' in driverless cars and allow it to get an early share of the lucrative market. New laws set to come in next month will rule who is to blame if an autonomous vehicle crashes. This is where the issue often occurs, as the rules aren't clear as to who is responsible if a crash occurs.

Telstra has announced completing a successful trial of vehicle-to-infrastructure (V2I) technology over its 4G network, conducted in South Australia in partnership with Cohda Wireless. Vehicle-to-everything (V2X) technology will allow vehicles to communicate with traffic lights, other vehicles, and pedestrians in future, according to Telstra, as well as the development of safe autonomous vehicles. "While there has been a lot of focus around future transport technology, there has not been much work done to date in Australia on supporting intelligent transport systems via existing 4G mobile networks," Telstra's director of Technology Andrew Scott said. "The trial we just completed in South Australia confirms that 4G can support V2I applications. These applications included alerting a driver to roadworks ahead, giving green light priority to high-priority vehicles, and testing optimal green light timing, where the vehicle is informed of the optimal speed to approach a traffic light so that that they get a green light when they arrive, therefore allowing a more continuous flow of traffic."

Swedish carmaker Volvo plans to run driverless car trials on public roads around London from next year. Initially the cars will be semi-autonomous, with real families travelling in them. Similar trials will run in the Swedish city Gothenburg. Drive Me London, as the trial is dubbed, will record data from these everyday journeys to help develop the technology and adapt it to real-world conditions. Details of which roads the cars will be tested on are not yet known.