Companies are invited to bid for £30 million of funding to support the development of self-driving vehicles on UK roads, Business Minister Richard Harrington has announced .

Funded through the Centre for Connected and Autonomous Vehicles (CCAV) and Meridian, the Government’s unique hub for testing autonomous technology, the competitions see Government and industry jointly investing in UK businesses to help realise the Government’s ambition to see fully self-driving vehicles on UK roads by 2021.

The next round of the competition could answer drivers’ parking woes since up to £5m will be awarded to projects developing and testing autonomous parking technology. This technology will allow self-driving cars to park in a range of different environments without human intervention. The money will also fund two public-testing sites for self-driving cars in urban settings, the first of the kind in Europe, these sites will ensure that connected and autonomous vehicles to become a normal feature on UK roads. It is part of the modern Industrial Strategy’s Mobility Grand Challenge to invest in and shape the design, development and manufacture of the transport system of tomorrow.

Business Minister Richard Harrington said: "Self-driving vehicles have the potential to revolutionise the way we move people and goods across the UK. They also support our ambition for a cleaner, greener future as part of our modern Industrial Strategy. The UK is already leading the way in developing this technology and today’s funding will bring self-driving vehicles one step closer to becoming a normal feature on UK roads and could, in time, make learning to parallel park a thing of the past."

The launch builds on the success of an earlier competition round which saw four UK projects awarded a total of £51m to test the speed, safety and potential opportunities for delivering connected and autonomous (CAV) innovation.