Self-driving cars to hit UK roads in Volvo trial

Self-driving cars are hitting the public roads of

Britain as Volvo brings semi-autonomous

vehicles to London's streets next year.

In early 2017 a small number of semi-

autonomous Volvo XC90 vehicles, with people

behind the wheel in case of emergency, will be

part of the first phase of a trial labelled Drive Me

London. By 2018, the Swedish automaker's

study is set to expand to 100 cars .

The Drive Me programme of driverless trials

began in Volvo's home city of Gothenburg, where

Roadshow's Tim Stevens spent time test-driving

-- or rather, not driving -- Volvo's semi-

autonomous cars. Semi-autonomous vehicles

allow you to hand over the wheel to the car,

which is equipped with GPS to guide you to your

destination and sensors that detect other

vehicles and obstacles.

Driverless vehicles are gathering speed across

the world. China and the US are also on Volvo's

list to try out autonomous vehicles. The UK is

running further trials in Milton Keynes, Coventry

and Bristol after the government pledged to

allow driverless vehicles on British motorways by

2020. And Google, Ford, Uber and other tech

giants have joined forces to give self-driving

cars a push.