In July, this summer, London is to get its first public driverless cars. These vehicles which are used to ferry passengers at Heathrow Airport since 2011, will be tested on pavements and adapted for use in Greenwich. Unlike the airport pods, these cars will have four conventional wheels, so they won't need to run on tracks. Seven cars like these will ferry people in the North Greenwich Tube station in areas close to the O2 Arena, local businesses and even between some residential streets.
The vehicles are being developed as a project of Greenwich Automated Transport Environment (led by United Kingdom's Transport Research Laboratory). Each self-driving pod will be able to carry six passengers. For navigating they will use lasers, sensors, cameras and software, but there will also be a member of staff always ready to press an emergency button in the event of a problem.
Autonomous cars are ready to be tested not only in Greenwich. Switzerland and Singapore and many Chinese cities, are ready to introduce some different types of self-driving vehicles (autonomous buses, shuttles).
