The first wave of driverless cars will be left deliberately unmarked amid fears that drivers would otherwise be tempted to “take them on” and drive more aggressively around them. A senior executive at Volvo said that self-driving cars, which the company hopes to put on the roads in the UK in 2018, would initially have no special markings. Erik Coelingh, senior technical leader at Volvo, said that the company feared that other motorists would drive erratically or slam on their brakes to try to force the cars to give way if they knew that there was no human driver. Volvo is planning to lease 100 self-driving four-wheel-drive vehicles to motorists in London under a pilot scheme due to launch in two years’ time. “From the
The senior technical leader at Volvo , Erik Coelingh has revealed that self - driving cars will be left un - marked so that motorists are not tempted to “ take them on ” or “ get the better ” of them . The first 100 self - driving Volvo 4x4s , to be leased as part of a pilot scheme in partnership with Volvo and Highways England on main roads into London in 2018 , will be identical to the conventional models . The House of Commons science and technology committee will soon begin looking at issues such as who is legally accountable for a car that “ thinks ” for itself .