The U.K. is set to allow self-driving cars to use public roads as of January 2015. Currently they are allowed on private roads only.

The Department for Transport had previously claimed that driverless cars would be trialled on public roads by the end of 2013, while the country’s Treasury announced a plan to create a £10 million ($16.9m) prize to fund a city to test autonomous vehicles.

Business Secretary Vince Cable and Chancellor George Osborne have both pushed the point that, “the UK is the right place to develop and test driverless cars”.

In the U.S., California, Nevada and Florida have all passed laws related to self-driving cars — with Google’s driverless car completing upwards of 300,000 miles of open road tests in California alone.

Japan and Sweden have also passed legislature, either allowing for tests, or committing to driverless cars being used in the future.

Google announced plans to manufacture 100 self-driving vehicles back in May, while other automakers including BMW, Mercedes-Benz, Nissan and General Motors are developing their own vehicles

Source: BBC