Taking your fingers off the steering wheel whereas driving on a busy M11 motorway in Essex at 70mph seems like a counterintuitive leap of religion.

When a show flashes blue on the dashboard the second has come: let go, and the automobile continues in its lane with no enter from toes or fingers.

The automobile is a Ford Mustang Mach-E, which has this month change into the primary to supply hands-free driving capabilities on roads within the UK – a primary for the entire of Europe, as properly. It’s a milestone within the shift to autonomous driving, even when, for now, it’s restricted to motorways.

Ford is now hoping that it might persuade prospects to pay for the know-how. Because it was authorized by regulators in April, 60% of the house owners of the 2023 model of the battery-electric Mach-E have used it, Ford stated. The subsequent few weeks would be the first take a look at of whether or not the characteristic, named BlueCruise, affords sufficient to steer UK drivers to half with the £18 a month it’ll price to allow it.

“We’re the primary and solely [manufacturer] doing this in Europe,” stated Jack Baker, a supervisor charged with rolling out the service. Ford is hoping at first to select up “seasonal use” prospects akin to folks making “one journey in the summertime”, he stated on the firm’s Stratford workplace.

Underneath UK laws hands-free mode is simply obtainable on motorways, with bodily obstacles separating automobiles from oncoming visitors. The laws for now additionally ban automated lane altering (which by the way provides drivers a brand new incentive to hog the center lane to keep away from being caught behind lorries).

An infrared digicam on the dashboard displays the motive force’s eyes – even when they’re sporting sun shades, in keeping with Ford. This meets UK laws which as but solely enable “hands-off, eyes on” know-how on public roads.

Testing that driver monitoring requires a second leap of religion. If letting go of the steering wheel feels daring, wanting away fully for the primary time provides one other degree of peril.

After 5 lengthy seconds wanting on the inexperienced fields and scattered growth of London’s exurbs, a chime tells the motive force to look again on the street. Just a few seconds extra and the chime turns into extra insistent. After about 15 seconds the automobile begins squeezing the brakes. It’s hardly a dramatic jolt, however sufficient to immediate a drowsy driver (or a nervous reporter) to take again management. (Finally the automobile will decelerate to 10km/h if the motive force doesn’t reply, and after 5 minutes of inattention it’ll alert emergency providers.)

Regardless of the limitations for now, a driver may go the overwhelming majority of the way in which from Folkestone on the south coast to Dundee in Scotland with out touching the wheel or the pedals, making for a a lot much less tiring journey.

Nonetheless, Philippe Houchois, an automotive fairness analyst at funding financial institution Jefferies, stated it was nonetheless unclear how a lot automobile house owners would pay for hands-off methods that will not add an enormous quantity in contrast with adaptive cruise management that has been obtainable (typically for no additional price) for over a decade.

“From a person perspective I don’t actually see an enormous distinction,” stated Houchois. Whereas some folks would positively see the worth, he stated the actual monetary worth for carmakers would come when drivers have “the true possibility of doing one thing else or saving time”.

Cars can be graded on six levels of autonomy, according to widely used standards set by the Society of Automotive Engineers. Zero stands for no autonomy, up to level 5 for full, no-intervention automation on any road. Ford’s system is the first to gain UK approval at level 2.

Other big carmakers will follow with level 2 tech once they have regulatory approvals. Germany’s BMW has said its hands-free option will be available in the UK from next year on some models. Porsche is expected to offer similar abilities on its Macan SUV next year as well.

Electric Mustang owners have already driven more than 100m miles with BlueCruise in control on US and Canadian roads, where there are more than 200,000 active users. Ford also reports that in that time there have been zero “incidents reported”.

Regulators around the world are taking different approaches to driverless technology – with varying degrees of openness to innovation.

Several US cities are already allowing robotaxis. General Motors subsidiary Cruise is already operating robotaxis in San Francisco, Phoenix and Austin – albeit in limited areas, at limited times, and with some issues with cars blocking roads. China is also allowing entirely driverless cars to be road tested in Shenzhen, a special economic zone and tech hub bordering Hong Kong that is hoping to be a leader in commercialised autonomous cars.

The rush to roll out autonomy is not without its controversies. Electric car pioneer Tesla describes its autonomous driving software as “full self-driving”, but it has faced scrutiny over how it and its boss, Elon Musk, promote its technology – which still requires a driver to be ready to take over at any time. US safety regulators are investigating a number of Tesla crashes where the software was in operation. Tesla was approached for comment.

Some analysts believe there is a long way to go before autonomy becomes a big source of profits for carmakers. “I am still a bit cynical,” said Houchois. “The point where we may trust the machines is a bit more distant.”