Self-driving cars could be on UK roads by 2026, says transport secretary

Asked if people would be able to travel ‘with your hands off the wheel, doing your emails’ in 2026, Harper replied: ‘Yes’. Photograph: Scharfsinn/Alamy

Autonomous vehicles could be on UK roads as soon as 2026, the transport secretary has said, as ministers seeks to capture as much as £42bn of the international self-driving market within the coming decade.

“This technology exists, it works, and what we’re doing is putting in place the proper legislation so that people can have full confidence in the safety of this technology,” Mark Harper told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme on Wednesday.