Business Insider, 1-17-2017 --Nissan will begin self-driving car tests in London next month, according to Reuters.

The tests mark the first conducted by the Japanese automaker on public roads in Europe, and will utilize modified versions of the Nissan LEAF electric car.

London has established itself as one of the more popular autonomous vehicle public test sites, possibly due to the challenging nature of the city’s roads, which offer a difficult test and prime data-gathering opportunity for the automaker.

London is quickly becoming a hub of self-driving car tests. In addition to this forthcoming test, the following tests have been announced or begun:

• In early 2015, certain localities on the outskirts of London and around England moved to permit self-driving tests. The trials were to last around 18 to 36 months, though none were to be conducted on public roads.
• Volvo will deploy unmarked self-driving cars in the city sometime in 2018. This is particularly noteworthy, as the vast majority of autonomous cars on the roads until this point have some sort of special marking on them, perhaps making consumers behave differently around them.
• Driverless shuttles deployed as part of Greenwich’s Gateway program were unveiled in early 2016. The larger project is part of a public-private partnership with the city in the Greenwich area.

This is likely a result of London’s relatively diverse roadways. The city has wide main streets along with windy, centuries-old roads. Further, unlike tests in the US, the AI powering the vehicles tested needs to adapt to driving on the left side of the road. To perfect the systems behind self-driving cars, it's best for them to be exposed to as many different environments as possible.

However, it's still unclear if London will remain a leader moving forward. The US federal government and certain individual states are increasingly signaling that they will become friendlier to autonomous cars, which could prompt companies to test in the US rather than the UK. Further, it's still unclear what impact Brexit will have on companies angling to test and eventually sell autonomous vehicles in the UK. 

BI Intelligence, Business Insider’s premium research service, has compiled a detailed report on self-driving cars that examines the major strides automakers and tech companies have made to overcome the barriers currently preventing fully autonomous cars from hitting the market. Further, the report examines global survey results showing where fully autonomous cars are highly desired.

Here are some key takeaways from the report:

• Three barriers have been preventing fully autonomous cars from hitting the road: 1) high technological component prices; 2) varying degrees of consumer trust in the technology; and 3) relatively nonexistent regulations. However, in the past six months, there have been many advances in overcoming these barriers.
• Technology has been improving as new market entrants find innovative ways to expand on existing fully autonomous car technology. As a result, the price of the components required for fully autonomous cars has been dropping.
• Consumer trust in fully autonomous vehicle technology has increased in the past two years.
• California became the first US state to propose regulations. California's regulations stipulate that a fully autonomous car must have a driver behind the wheel at all times, discouraging Google's and Uber's idea of a driverless taxi system.

Read the rest of the story HERE.