By ELLIE ZOLFAGHARIFARD

While driverless cars won’t be cruising down the motorway anytime soon, they could soon find their way into our airports and campuses.

Ten US cities will roll out automated vehicle pilot projects this year, with the first being unveiled in Tampa Bay, Florida in the spring.

Meanwhile, trials will launch in another 12 to 20 US locations by the end of next year, which means driverless cars could be on the roads in up to 30 US cities by 2017.

Ten US cities will roll out automated vehicle projects this year, with the first being unveiled in Tampa Bay, Florida in the spring. Meanwhile, trials will launch in another 12 to 20 US locations by the end of next year. Greenwich in the UK will also be trialling the technology (artist’s impression pictured)

The trials use vehicles developed by France-based Veeo Systems, according to a report in the New York Observer. These vary in size from two-seaters to large buses.

‘Some will be on the roads where it’s legal,’ Corey Clothier, a strategist for automated transportation systems who runs the firm told DailyMail.com.

Elsewhere, he said the focus will be on college campuses, theme parks, airports and downtown areas.

The whole goal is to launch pilots so we can collect data to help with the regulations that will legalise the cars,’ he added.

For instance, in the U.S. Army’s Fort Bragg in North Carolina, automated pod-like cars will transport wounded troops from their barracks.

‘It’s a wounded warrior campus, and we’re going to start pretty small with two essentially big gulf carts to take the soldiers from living quarters to the hospital next door,’ said Clothier.

Pictured are the locations who have publicly agreed to pilot projects under the Comet programme.  Comet’s ultimate goal is to have the project running in 30 states, but said that some are not yet ready to announce plans

‘Starting with two vehicles our goal is getting up to six to eight.’

The programme, run by Comet LLC, is also planning a pilot project at the United States Military Academy at West Point, at the Stanford SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory, as well as two more projects in Florida.

Meanwhile 70-person automated vehicles will operate in Greenville, South Carolina and Seattle, Washington.

Comet’s ultimate goal is to have the pilots running in 30 states, but said that some areas are not yet ready to announce their plans.

As well as the US, the UK will also be trialing the vehicles in Greenwich as part of the $9 million project called Gateway, shuttling people to the O2 Arena.

Clothier explained that the technology works in the same way as Google’s driverless vehicles.

An on-board computer uses data from sensors, including radar, a laser and cameras, to make turns and negotiate its way around pedestrians and other vehicles.

A combination of radar, lasers gives the car a 360-degree ‘view’, with sensors linked to computer software able to ‘see’ and identify people, cars, road signs and markings and traffic lights.

‘It’s interesting to see people’s reactions’, said Clothier. ‘Very few are nervous, or noticeably nervous.

‘Most of them are curious, excited intrigued and many of them are very comfortable – or they soon get comfortable.’

‘We’ve had interesting reactions from non-riders too. We were in the Silicon Valley and we had hundreds of people step in front of the vehicle to see what would happen.’

‘The vehicles stopped. We’ve never had an accident.’

But Clothier says that an accident is probably not far off. ‘Systems will fail, people’s judgements will fail. If someone jumps out from a blind spot from a vehicle, if it can’t stop, it can’t stop.’

‘It’s important we figure out alleviate the problem, to keep moving forward’.

Research shows human drivers change their behaviour when using the same roads as autonomous cars. Motorists were found to copy the driving style of the computer controlled cars by leaving less space between them and the vehicle in front, but were less able to react quickly

HOW SAFE ARE DRIVERLESS CARS?

Corey Clothier, who is co-ordinating the trials told DailyMail.com that an accident involved a driverless car is inevitable – although he added none have taken place in his pilots.

‘Systems will fail, people’s judgements will fail,’ he said. ‘If someone jumps out from a blind spot from a vehicle, if it can’t stop, it can’t stop.’

‘It’s interesting to see people’s reactions’, said Clothier. ‘Very few are nervous, or noticeably nervous.

‘Most of them are curious, excited intrigued and many of them are very comfortable – or they soon get comfortable.’

‘We’ve had interesting reactions from non-riders too. We were in the Silicon Valley and we had hundreds of people step in front of the vehicle to see what would happen.’

‘The vehicles stopped. We’ve never had an accident.’

A recent report by the Institution of Engineering and Technology highlighted research that showed human drivers change their behaviour when using the same roads as autonomous cars.

Motorists were found to copy the driving style of the computer controlled cars by leaving less space between them and the vehicle in front, but were less able to react quickly.

However, many experts say that driverless cars could actually reduce the risk of accidents as computers are able to react a lot faster than humans.

Software that guide and control the cars will have to be written with a high degree of accuracy and contain fail-safes, while cars will need to be regularly maintained to ensure there are no faults.

Google has also been teaching its vehicles to drive more safely by giving them instructions on ‘defensive driving’ styles.

They have also been experimenting with teaching the vehicles ‘body language’ to communicate with other drivers what its intentions are.

 Source: Mail Online