The United Kingdom will have autonomous taxis and buses by 2021

The future of motoring lies in autonomous technology. The mere thought of making a journey without having to lift a finger, while enjoying multimedia content in your personal vehicle, sounds like science fiction, yet it will soon become a reality…

In the coming decades, autonomous vehicles will become the standard mode of transport for everyone. One day we will get into our car and by means of voice commands, we will tell the OS where we want to go, and it, calculating among other things traffic and route, will take us to our destination without having to lift a single finger.

In recent years, many European cities have been trying to make plans, or preparing areas, to enable the autonomous driving of the future.

Infrastructure is a crucial aspect in the integration of autonomous technology, which is why the United Kingdom is getting its act together to genuinely commit to this type of technology. So much so that its forecasts point to 2021 as the year for the launch of autonomous taxis and buses.

This ambitious plan involves a reorganisation of the structure of its public transport. The UK Government indicates that by 2021, buses and taxis that will be fully autonomous will be running on the country’s streets.

This also means that autonomous bus routes will be created in Scotland as well, as well as in various areas of London. The funding for this project amounts to £25 million, that is, around €32 million.

The idea is that these autonomous vehicles will provide up to 10,000 journeys a week at the outset. These autonomous vehicles, taking into account current technologies, will be capable of carrying up to 42 passengers on a journey of about 22 kilometres, and will operate every 20 minutes.

Autonomous taxis will debut in London, and the idea is that they will also be available by 2021. The company in charge of their distribution is called Addison Lee, which will receive state aid to complete the project.

It looks very promising in terms of the future of autonomous technology. It seems that governments are now taking it more seriously, and with a bit of luck, within 20 years the infrastructure and autonomous cars will work just like in all those science fiction films we are used to.