Highways England is part of the consortium working alongside Nissan, who are leading the HumanDrive project.
Mike Wilson, Executive Director for Safety, Engineering and Standards at Highways England welcomed the announcement:
Highways England sees the potential benefits of greater automation of vehicles to deliver improved safety and increased mobility.
We will be working closely with our HumanDrive partners on the plans for the on-road testing. We will be taking the research and development of the Nissan vehicle to map how the introduction of such an autonomous vehicle can shape the future of our roads, in terms of safety, emissions, journey times and capacity.