Europe has started the development of self driving cars. The SARTRE Project, which aims to develop the first self driving cars to hit the streets of Europe, has received funding from the European Commission under the Framework 7 program. Apparently, "trains" of vehicles, or as the project calls them, platoons, will drive on normal highways by them selves. The developers of the self driving cars believe they will reduce the impact on the environment while increasing road safety and comfort. What about the pleasure of driving a car?
The project of developing the self driving cars is led by Ricardo UK Ltd in collaboration with Idiada and Robotiker-Tecnalia of Spain, Institut for Kraftfahrwesen Aachen (IKA) of Germany,
SP Technical Research Institute of Sweden, Volvo Car Corporation and Volvo Technology of Sweden.
The "platoons" of self driving cars will have to be able to interact with regular vehicles, and will have to be able to operate on the current European highways.
In fact the cars will not be completely autonomous. The first car in the road train will be driven by an actual person (professional driver), who will be responsible for all of them.
The drivers of the car behind him will be able to do things that are otherwise prohibited (like texting or talking on the mobile phone, for example).
At this point they haven't announced a date when the new self driving cars will hit the streets of Europe.
