Swedish carmaker Volvo plans to run driverless car trials on public roads around London from next year.
Initially the cars will be semi-autonomous, with real families travelling in them.
Similar trials will run in the Swedish city Gothenburg.
Drive Me London, as the trial is dubbed, will record data from these everyday journeys to help develop the technology and adapt it to real-world conditions.
Details of which roads the cars will be tested on are not yet known. The trial is due to expand in 2018 from a handful of autonomous cars to 100, making it the largest of its kind in the UK.
“Autonomous driving (AD) represents a leap forward in car safety,” said Håkan Samuelsson, president of Volvo Cars.
“The sooner AD cars are on the roads, the sooner lives will start being saved.”
Up to 90% of car accidents are presently caused by driver error and research suggests that autonomous driving could reduce this by at least 30%.