1. 5 updates

Government to trial driverless cars from January 2015

The government will announce new measures today which will see driverless cars on the streets of Britain in 2015.

Business Secretary Vince Cable will later confirm that the first trials of the self-driving vehicles will start in January next year.

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'We need to get these driverless cars onto public roads'

Under new measures announced today, fleets of driverless cars are expected to be introduced to the UK roads in "less than six months".

The Government plans to adapt road regulations, which requires changes to the Highway Code, to allow companies to start running trials of cars that do not need a human driver.

ITV News Correspondent Ben Chapman spoke to future transport engineer, Tim Edwards, as he was taken for a drive in one of the new satellite controlled vehicles.

"What we need to do now is get these cars onto public roads so they are immersed in the really complicated day-to-day drive that we'll experience," Mr Edwards said.

Watch: Google shares video of man testing driverless car

Driverless cars will be on UK roads in 'under 6 months'

Business Secretary Vince Cable has announced today that new measures would see "fleets" of driverless cars take to Britain's roads "in less than six months”.

The Business Secretary said driverless cars would be on the roads in Credit: PA

The Government plans to adapt road regulations, which requires changes to the Highway Code, to allow companies to start running trials of cars that do not need a human driver.

Cable said the satellite controlled vehicles are putting the nation "at the forefront of transformational technology" and believes the UK has the "potential to be a world leader in this field".

We will have vehicles which will have automatic parking, we can have automatic breaking which can reduce the risk of tailgating and things of that kind, so these features will gradually be built in.

The key point is that British satellite technology is now pretty advanced, we are now one of the leading countries in the world, and the British car manufacturing industry is very successful.

– Mr Cable

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Google shares video of man testing driverless car

The government will announce new measures today which will see driverless cars on the streets of Britain in 2015.

Google has shared a video of the moment Steve Mahan became one of the first users to test the new self-driving car.

The footage follows Steve as he drives around- without touching the steering wheel.

Google posted the video with the message:

Steve’s outing is more than just a carefully programmed test drive, it’s the realization of a science fiction dream and an opportunity for technology to impact the lives of millions of people.

We hope these experiments unlock new possibilities for our users—even if it's something as simple as picking up tacos

– Google

Google announced the project in 2010 in a bid to make driving "safer, more enjoyable, and more efficient".

Read: Former Stig: Best computer in a car 'is the human'

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