The United Kingdom may be one of the first homes to Google’s autonomous cars.
The US internet giant has met with UK government officials five times in the last two years, according to some media reports.
Google is said to believe the UK could take a leading position in developing laws for the vehicles, which are currently being tested in California and that may become publicly available by 2020. The Californian tech giant reportedly sees the UK as a key market for its driverless cars. According to some documents, those face-to-face meetings have focused on bringing autonomous cars to the streets of the U.K. even though, it is unclear whether Google is planning to extend trials to the UK.
Google has been one of the key players developing autonomous vehicles, with its cars that have driven more than 1.2 million miles on public roads since its tests began in 2012.
Google’s cars are fitted with a Lidar, a sensor that uses laser technology, which can spot pedestrians and other traffic. The industry is estimated to explode over the next few years. There will be a predicted 10 million autonomous cars on the road by 2020.
According to records of the five meetings, held in London and California between January 2014 and July this year, they were attended by leading figures at Google’s self-driving cars project: Chris Urmson, the head of the unit, Jennifer Haroon, the head of business and officials from various government departments such as the Treasury and UK Trade & Investment.
Google has praised Britain’s approach to how driverless cars should be governed and insured, while the Government has enthusiastically put millions of pounds towards driverless car research. In July 2015 the UK government launched a £20 million fund to research self-driving tech.
As a computer program, rather than a human one, would be controlling the autonomous vehicle, experts have suggested that car manufacturers will be held responsible. Driverless cars are likely to shake up the insurance industry as well.