Almost two thirds of motorists said they would not buy a driverless car despite plans to make the UK a world centre for the autonomous vehicles, a study suggests. It comes after Philip Hammond announced in November plans to invest hundreds of millions of pounds to upgrade electric car charging facilities -- which would speed up the proliferation of driverless cars. But research conducted for The Times also found that one third of people would not pay extra for a driverless car. Three quarters added they were not confident that driverless cars were safe and that being hacked was the most significant worry. The study also found that the public doubts the benefits of the cars and suspects industry motives.

Last week, Chancellor Philip Hammond announced in the Autumn Budget a £500m package of investment into tech initiatives, including the development of artificial intelligence. Which must have had the Channel 4 executives ordering trebles all round, because with perfect timing they've designated this week the "Rise of the Robots season", with a schedule that includes documentaries on the take-off of artificial intelligences (AIs) as consulting doctors, a David Tennant-narrated piece on the challenge of making robots as human as possible, and the one that's had the tabloids hot under the collar, today'sThe Sex Robots Are Coming – which needs little further explanation. Doctor Who and the Invasion of the Sex-Bots aside, though, is it actually possible that the dream of science fiction writers going back a century or more is on the verge of reality? Are we really about to live in the long-promised future of robots and AIs? As they used to say on the old Six Million Dollar Man TV show (point of order – Steve Austin was a cyborg, not a robot), we have the technology… or we're about to.

The Government is to spend hundreds of millions of pounds encouraging people to make electric cars that drive themselves. It will spend huge amounts of money to try and incentivise electric vehicles. Then eventually those cars will start driving themselves around the country – with Chancellor Philip Hammond backing a plan to have them making their own way by 2021. Jeremy Corbyn used the news about driverless vehicles to joke about having tested "backseat driving" in the Government, which has been bitterly divided before the Budget. Mr Hammond said the technology was being introduced because the Government saw it as the future.

Philip Hammond vowed to use the Budget to push for driverless cars on the road within years. The Chancellor has made clear his crucial financial package this week will be a rallying cry for Britain to take the lead on technology. Playing down concerns about the safety of self-driving vehicles, Mr Hammond said that after Brexit the UK to be'leading the next industrial revolution'. Alongside removing obstacles to autonomous cars, Mr Hammond is set to announce investment in robotics and 5G internet. He will unveil changes to regulations that will allow developers to test self-driving cars on UK roads for the first time.

Driverless cars will be on Britain's roads by 2021 as a result of sweeping regulatory reforms that will put the UK in the forefront of a post-Brexit technological revolution, chancellor Philip Hammond will say this week. In his budget on Wednesday Hammond will allow driverless cars to be tested without any human operator inside or outside the car, and without the legal constraints and rules that apply in many other EU nations, and much of the US. The move – welcomed by the UK motor industry – is part of an attempt by Hammond and the Treasury to project a more upbeat message about the prospects for the UK economy after Brexit, and focus on opportunities as well as the risks. Carmakers have warned that they may have to move at least some production abroad if there is no deal to keep Britain inside the EU single market and customs union, at least for a two-year transition period. But Mike Hawes, chief executive of the Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders, said it was good news that the government was taking a lead by making the UK attractive to those seeking to develop, test and build an entirely new generation of cars.

Wednesday's Budget will include plans to make the UK the best place to manufacture and road-test driverless cars, the chancellor has said. Writing in the Sun newspaper, Mr Hammond said investment in "exciting new technologies", including in driverless cars, will be announced. This will "prepare the ground" for the cars to be on UK roads by 2021, he said. Mr Hammond said the "inventors dream" will soon become a reality. The technology that allows cars to become more autonomous has been increasing in recent years, with all the main manufacturers now offering some element of driverless technology, including self-parking features and cruise control on motorways.

So Philip Hammond unveiled his big hairy budget. The Chancellor had touted this as an "upbeat budget". A phrase that makes as much sense as "diet fish supper" or "talented Honey G". The snoozefest included £500million to be spent on robots and artificial intelligence. At which point Hammond's eyes flashed red and he started shouting "malfunction, malfunction" until somebody turned him off at the back.

Until robots reach some kind of full consciousness, nobody feels bad about not paying them. That's why austerity-focused governments are on a collision course with replacing civil servants with automated workers to cut costs: We're talking robo-cops, robo-firefighters, robo-mailmen. If artificial intelligence gets good enough to take private-sector jobs, there's little to stop it from driving a technological revolution that could leave government services unrecognizable. For the past six years, the British Conservative Party has been pursuing an austerity program to cut the deficit, slashing funds for local services and reducing staff numbers in the public sector. A recent report, published in October by Oxford University and Deloitte, suggests the government could go much further: over 850,000 public sector jobs could be lost to automation by the year 2030.