UK to allow driverless cars on public roads in January
The UK government will shortly outline measures to permit driverless cars to use public roads by next year.
Currently, autonomous vehicles are only allowed on private roads.
The Department for Transport had previously pledged to allow self-driving cars to be trialled on public roads by the end of 2013.
In December, the Treasury said it would create a £10m prize to fund a town or city to become a testing ground for the cars.
In his National Infrastructure Plan of 2013, the Chancellor outlined his goal to ensure 'that the legislative and regulatory framework demonstrates to the world's car companies that the UK is the right place to develop and test driverless cars.'
Some US states already allow self-driving cars on public roads.
UK engineers, including a group at the University of Oxford, have been experimenting with driverless cars, but thus far their trials have been restricted to private roads.
Automotive engineering firm MIRA has tested its vehicles at an 850-acre site in the Midlands.
However, other countries have been swifter to allow autonomous cars on their roads.
The US States of California, Nevada and Florida have all paved the way for the vehicles, while the Swedish city of Gothenburg is to allow 1,000 Volvo driverless cars to take to the road by 2017.
In 2013, Nissan carried out Japan's first public road test of an autonomous vehicle on a highway.
In May, Google unveiled plans to manufacture 100 self-driving vehicles.
The search-giant exhibited a prototype which has no steering wheel or pedals - just a stop-go button.
Google has also put its autonomous driving technology in cars built by other companies, including Toyota, Audi and Lexus.
Other major manufacturers, including BMW, Mercedes-Benz, Nissan and General Motors, are developing their own models.
But concerns about the safety of driverless cars have been raised by politicians in the US and elsewhere.
Earlier this month, the FBI warned that driverless cars could be used as lethal weapons, predicting that the vehicles 'will have a high impact on transforming what both law enforcement and its adversaries can operationally do with a car'.
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