Self-Drive Cars Tested In America

Alarmingly high car insurance rates could be a thing of the past after it was announced that self-drive cars have been successfully tested in California.

Driver error could be all but eradicated, meaning car insurance premiums could be significantly reduced for those who opt for automated vehicles in the future.

According to the BBC, testing of these vehicles was completed over 140,000 miles with relatively few incidents, but Google admitted that the vehicles were only driven over authorised, pre-planned routes and with an operative in the driver's seat ready to take control.

Sebastian Thrun, a Stanford University professor and a member of the pioneering project told the BBC: "We believe our technology has the potential to cut that number, perhaps by as much as half. While this project is very much in the experimental stage, it provides a glimpse of what transportation might look like in the future thanks to advanced computer science. And that future is very exciting."