wooow!London's first driverless cars revealed

Image copyrightGATEway project

Image captionThe trial of driverless vehicles in Greenwich will use adapted pods currently used at Heathrow Airport

The design for the first driverless cars to be tested on the streets of London has been revealed

The consortium behind the trial has decided to adapt electric passenger shuttles that are currently in service at Heathrow Airport for use in Greenwich.

Unlike the Heathrow pods, they will not need dedicated tracks.

The Greenwich trial is one of four in the UK to test driverless technology and public reaction to it.

Apart from the Gateway (Greenwich Automated Transport Environment), the other trials will take place in Bristol, Coventry and Milton Keynes. The £8m project is jointly funded by government agency Innovate UK and industry.

Seven of the pods will be tested on the pavements around the Greenwich Peninsula, where the 02 Arena is based, from July.

Routes are still be worked out but are likely to include residential areas, the North Greenwich tube station and businesses around the O2.

Image copyrightGateway

Image captionThe vehicle shown off at the demonstration event was likened to a milk float

The design is different from the one shown off at the launch of the scheme, when a shuttle vehicle designed by autonomous vehicle firm Phoenix Wings was demonstrated.