Customers can now order a remote-controlled driverless car in Milton Keynes, and may soon be able to hire the robocars for trips to and from the airport too.
Following 18 months of testing its technology on the streets of Milton Keynes, British startup Imperium Drive has opened its Fetch service to the public.
Though the vehicles can navigate the roads without a driver in the seat, they are remotely operated by an operator.
“It’s driverless but not autonomous - yet,” Koosha Kaveh, chief executive of Imperium Drive, told the Milton Keynes Citizen. “There’s still a human involved, but they’re sitting in a control centre piloting the vehicle in the same way you would a drone.”
There are only four cars in the fleet, operating within a four-mile radius of central Milton Keynes.
Customers can order a car through the Fetch app, which is available on both the App Store and Google Play, and wait for it to be delivered to them. They then take the wheel and drive it to their destination.
Once they are finished, the electric vehicle is driven back to its base or to the next user by the remote operator. The remote driver has a 360-degree view of the road, using cameras on the car as well as computer imaging which detects onjects nearby.
“When fully autonomous, we think this system has the potential to replace private car ownership in the UK,” Mr Kaveh said. “Why pay all the costs of having a car on your drive when you can just pay for one to arrive when you need it?”
Imperium Drive plans to expand Fetch to more regional hubs, with a focus on airport transfers and other areas. So it is possible that the cars will be whizzing around London in the future.
The company also hopes to transition to fully autonomous car deliveries in the next five years.
Uber last week said it would begin offering American users riders in driverless cars later this year.
On this side of the Atlantic, a three-year trial of autonomous vehicles in Woolwich recently finished without any crashes. Meanwhile, Ocado and Asda are both exploring the possibility of driverless deliveries for their groceries in London.
