Four-passenger, fully-autonomous vehicles are currently being tested at London’s Olympic Park, and can be seen gingerly feeling its way along cycle paths there.
There is no windscreen, steering wheel, gearstick, brake or accelerator pedal.
Passengers face each other or watch through side windows as the London Stadium passes sedately by.
When a dog ambles into its path, the vehicle, which can go 25mph but for now is sticking to 5mph, comes to a smooth halt, avoiding mishap by what may seem to be an excessive margin.
As GCR’s sister magazine Construction Manager learned in a test drive in the vehicle, the experiment is being conducted by a 17-member consortium hoping to get a headstart on the expected global autonomous vehicle wave.
Global infrastructure company Aecom is a leading the consortium because it wants to grasp what the infrastructure implications will be.
See it in action here:
Image: The pod, manufactured by consortium-member Westfield Technology Group (Courtesy of Westfield Technology Group)
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Easy to hijack, easy victims for pranks, tinted glass interferes with sight of rare London blue sky – Driverless vehicles will turn out to be one of mankind’s stupidest ideas ever.