"Game changing" driverless and electric vehicles are the future, say newspapers

A driverless bus is "the future of public transport" according to one newspaper, whilst another on-line newspaper describes the "unstoppable rise" of both electric and driverless cars despite a number of "body blows to an industry still finding its feet".

The Mirror hails a "gamechanging" Mercedes Benz 'future bus' that uses Daimler 'City Pilot autonomous system, "a network of cameras and GPS designed to figrue out where the bus is on the road and what its immediate surroundings are like". The system "even knows when to stop and pull off at bus stops" and, "unlike connected cars, it can work with existing roads". The bus has been tested in the Netherlands with a driver "in case of emergency".

Meanwhile an article in The Independent asserts that, despite a Tesla Model S electric car in advanced driver assistance mode and a Google prototype self-driving electric vehicle crashing, and an announcement that electric car chargers will no longer be free to use, indications are of a "continuous and unstoppable rise" in EVs and driverless cars.

It points to advances in battery technology and falling battery costs, and the advent of wireless charging, and says predictions are that 10% of new-build cars will be powered by petrol by 2050. And driverless car technology, it claims, will lead to "seismic shifts in the amount of time at our disposal". Six billion minutes in the U.S "will be freed up " and cities will be re-designed with the space devoted to vehicles plummeting, it adds.