Business Secretary Vince Cable has announced two new measures today that give the green light for driverless cars to take to UK roads from January 2015.

UK cities can now bid for a share of a £10 million competition to host a driverless cars trial. The government is calling on cities to join together with businesses and research organisations to put forward proposals to become a test location.

Commenting on the announcement, Sarah Macken, Chief Executive of ESCO said:

“It’s good to see the legal barriers to driverless cars being removed. UK electronic systems companies are leading the charge in developing this revolutionary new technology by developing the kit that will bring driverless cars to our highways. This emergent technology presents a real opportunity for our £80bn electronic systems industry”.

ESCO is the Electronic Systems Community coordinating strategies of the UK’s leading trade associations in the sector working with 30,000 UK Electronics Systems businesses, supported by the UK’s leading Electronics Systems companies such as ARM, Imagination Technologies, Plastic Logic, Siemens and many others.

You can read the Government announcement in full here