The driverless vehicle maker Wayve is reported to be looking at testing its systems abroad because of delays in enacting new UK laws allowing advanced trials of the technology.

The Telegraph reports that the company, which is backed by Microsoft and Sir Richard Branson, said the lack of rules allowing driverless car companies to test vehicles without human safety drivers or to run commercial services meant it could expand abroad instead of in Britain.

The complexities of drafting wide-ranging legislation is delaying the Government’s plans to introduce new laws for driverless cars.

The Telegraph quotes Wayve’s director of public policy Sarah Gates as saying driverless car legislation has not moved on since 2016, and delays could force the company to consider other markets.

She told the paper: “We’re fully committed to the UK currently. But if you don’t legalise the deployment of the technology, any company would then have to look at what are our options for making sure that we can bring this technology to market.

“The UK will quickly move from being pro-innovation and facilitating developers to actually being really quite far behind, because the technology is now surpassing UK policy.”

Wayve is testing driverless deliveries with Ocado, but still needs a safety driver.

(Picture – Wayve)