Autonomous automobiles might be on UK roads as quickly as 2026, the transport secretary has mentioned, as ministers seeks to seize as a lot as £42bn of the worldwide self-driving market throughout the coming decade.

“This know-how exists, it really works, and what we’re doing is setting up the right laws so that folks can have full confidence within the security of this know-how,” Mark Harper informed BBC Radio 4’s As we speak programme on Wednesday.

Requested if individuals would have the ability to journey in self-driving automobiles “along with your fingers off the wheel, doing all of your emails” in 2026, Harper replied: “Sure, and I feel that’s when firms expect – in 2026, throughout that yr – that we’ll begin seeing this know-how rolled out.”

Responding to a query by the previous Prime Gear presenter James Could – who was As we speak’s visitor editor – about why the federal government was supporting the event of autonomous driving, Harper claimed there have been “a couple of” causes.

He mentioned: “I feel it would truly enhance street security. We have already got an excellent street security file in Britain however there are nonetheless a number of thousand individuals a yr killed on our roads. That might be improved.

“It’s an enormous financial alternative for Britain to get what will probably be an enormous international share of market. The ultimate factor is, there are lots of people who presently don’t have the chance to get the liberty that many people drivers take as a right.

“For instance, there are individuals who have disabilities, individuals with studying disabilities, who don’t have the identical freedom that driving brings the remainder of us. This doubtlessly opens up an entire new world for private freedom, attending to work, being able to not need to depend on different individuals.”

The remarks got here as a invoice to control the usage of automated automobiles strikes by the Home of Lords and as Britain vies to steer the sphere in autonomous driving. As critics have cited security considerations and argued the proposed laws is just not prepared for a transition interval of autonomous and normal automobiles – trade gamers, nevertheless, have mentioned the invoice supplies a development alternative for the home trade.

The transport secretary mentioned firms have been anticipating to introduce the know-how progressively in 2026 and with it the flexibility to enhance street security, present an financial alternative for Britain and grant private freedom to these unable to drive.

Final yr, the federal government pledged to permit the primary self-driving automobiles on British roads by 2025. In April, the federal government accredited one other step on the trail to self-driving automobiles as the primary hands-free self-driving system was accredited for British motorways. By 2035, the UK may seize as a lot as £42bn of the worldwide self-driving market, in line with Lord Davies of Gower.

“We already know the know-how works,” Harper informed the BBC, including that he had seen it utilized in California, the place the automated know-how has been accredited to be used on public roads.

As the federal government seeks to compete with Silicon Valley’s promise to revolutionise the best way we drive, autonomous automobiles have confronted elevated scrutiny in latest months. The founding father of Cruise, owned by Basic Motors, resigned in November after the driverless automobile firm misplaced permission to function following security incidents. Final month, a decide discovered “affordable proof” that Elon Musk and different executives at Tesla knew that the corporate’s self-driving know-how was faulty however allowed the automobiles to be pushed anyway.

When debating the invoice in November, Lord Naseby mentioned that as of 10 November, the California Division of Motor Autos had obtained 673 autonomous car collision reviews.

“Effectively, if security is major to this laws, that’s not an excellent begin, is it?” he mentioned.