Google has been testing self-driving or autonomous cars in a few States here in the US. Including California, Washington and Texas, other manufacturers – namely Ford and General Motors – have been testing out autonomous cars in Michigan as well. It looks like officials in London are wanting some of the self-driving trials to take place across the pond as well. According to a report coming out of The Guardian, officials have supposedly met with Google regarding bringing autonomous cars on over to the UK.
London’s Deputy Mayor of Transport, Isabel Dedring, stated that self-driving cars are going to need to work in big cities, “so why don’t we start trialling it now?” Dedring also mentioned that Google has been thinking about moving their self-driving car trials outside of the US. Which, up until this point, they have been focusing only on the US. And that she has been in “active discussions” with the search giant. Dedring noted that she met with Google a few weeks ago regarding the trials, and that while it’s still in the very early days, she would love to see the trials taking place in London. Dedring, like many of us, is still a bit skeptical of self-driving cars. While noting that they are “much safer as the computer controls the distance at which driverless cars drive and their speed” and that accidents would decrease. That’s something that Google has been noting quite often in regards to their self-driving cars.
As of the writing of this, Google has not confirmed nor denied whether they are looking to bring their self-driving cars on over to London and the UK. Google has been going pretty slow in regards to their autonomous cars and only recently opened it in their third city (Mountain View, CA; Kirklington, WA and Austin, TX). While Google does want to make these cars go mainstream, it might not go international just yet. While Dedring’s logic is correct – that these cars are going to need to do well in big cities – Google does expand projects like this pretty slowly, and is expected to continue that pace.