Jeremy Clarkson claims he was almost killed while testing a driverless car on UK roads recently.
Writing in The Sunday Times, the outspoken journalist didn’t specify what semi-autonomous car he was piloting but said his experience tells him that we’re a long away from having safe and fully-autonomous vehicles on public roads, The Independent reports.
“I drove a car the other day which has a claim of autonomous capability and twice in the space of 50 miles on the M4 it made a mistake, a huge mistake, which could have resulted in death.
“We have to be very careful legally, so I’m not going to say which one,” Clarkson said.
The experience of The Grand Tour host comes at an interesting time in the UK. The country’s chancellor, Philip Hammond, is preparing to give the green light for developers to test self-driving vehicles on public roads.
In typical Clarkson style, he jokingly suggested he’ll only buy into self-driving cars when they can drive along the Death Road in Bolivia.
“You drive one of your driverless cars over the Death Road in Bolivia and I’ll buy one.
“Sit there with your hands folded and let it drive you up there, then squeeze past a lorry with half the tire hanging over a 1,000ft drop while the car drives itself. Fine, I’ll buy into it,” he said.
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