TESTING of driverless cars has begun on Oxford’s roads and the county will soon see autonomous pods taking people to and from work.

Oxbotica has been using driverless vehicles on roads near its Summertown offices as part of its ‘Driven’ project, after successful trials on the Culham science campus.

The company is hoping the cars will be able to drive themselves to London within the next year.

Graeme Smith, the company’s CEO, said: “We are currently focusing on testing the cars in the most difficult environments.

“We are not too worried about the motorways or the A roads, they are fairly easy for us to navigate.

“Instead we want to specialise in the awkward spaces, and cities like Oxford, which were developed for the horse and cart, are perfect for this.

“If we can crack it then everything else is simple.

“We are collecting lots of data about how cyclists and pedestrians interact and how to be polite to pedestrians but equally how not to get stuck forever waiting on a road junction.

“It’s all the things you learn as a post-learner driver.”

The company’s six vehicles will work as a fleet and talk to each other about map differences and things they have seen, to inform how they behave and perform.

Meanwhile, the country’s first driverless car trial will see commuters taken from Didcot Parkway station to Milton Park in autonomous pods.

A 30-month trial, run by a consortium including FirstGroup, local councils and electric cars manufacturer Arrival, has been announced following a £2.5m grant from the Government’s innovation agency, Innovate UK.

The pods will travel between private roads in the 250-acre business and technology park, but also on public roads that link the site with transport services.

Commuters will be able to book and pay for journeys to and from work and it is hoped that by the end of the trial up to 50 per cent will switch from private vehicles to using the shared, electric-powered pods.

John Birtwistle, project lead for FirstGroup, said: “It’s a huge step towards tackling the problem of congestion on our roads and enabling the sustainable future development of the business park and, potentially, other similar sites in the future.”