The rental cars delivered by remote drivers in an office miles away

Motorists in Milton Keynes can now have a rental car delivered to their door remotely by a driver sat in an office miles away.

The Fetch remote vehicle service has been tested in Milton Keynes for the last 18 months before being made available to customers from today (Thursday 1 June).

The notorious New Town with a reputation for roundabouts, concrete cows and seemingly little else, has turned into an unlikely haven for innovative projects and tech entrepreneurs in recent years. 

Imperium Drive, the company behind the service where cars are controlled by an office-based operator, claimed it was the first of its kind in Europe.

Chief executive, Koosha Kaveh, said: ‘It’s driverless but not autonomous – yet.’

Motorists in Milton Keynes can now have a rental car delivered to their door by a remote driver sat in an office miles away

The Fetch remote vehicle service has been tested in Milton Keynes for the last 18 months before being made available to customers from today (Thursday 1 June)

Multi-million-pound trials took place on private land around the MK Dons football stadium because it is like a town in small scale, with a retail park, hotel and crossroads, as well as pedestrians and cyclists.

The remote operator of the car has a 360-degree view of the roads using cameras built into the vehicle, as well as anti-crash safety systems in the operating software.

Customers can hire the electric cars through an app and although they drive them as normal, the vehicles are delivered by a remote operator to any location within a four-mile (6.4km) radius of Milton Keynes city centre.

When the rental period expires, the operator resumes control and brings the vehicle back to base.

The cars have been tested on the city’s roads for the past year and a half, completing more than 1,000 miles (1,609km) of journeys without a single collision, Imperium Drive told the BBC.

While originally offered as a paying service in Milton Keynes only with a fleet of just four vehicles, the company behind it says it plans to roll it out across the country

The service has gone live in the wake of a recent recommendation to the Government to ban remotely driven vehicles that are beginning to arrive from abroad until it has outlined ‘robust regulations’ to ensure they’re safe.

The Law Commission of England and Wales made the recommendation in an advice paper published in February and handed to ministers, suggesting how to regulate vehicles being controlled by individuals in remote locations.

Commenting on the service launching today, Mr Kaveh said: ‘There’s still a human involved, but they’re sitting in a control centre piloting the vehicle in the same way you would a drone. 

‘When fully autonomous, we think this system has the potential to replace private car ownership in the UK.’

He added: ‘For short trips, the service offers the same convenience as a ride-hailing or taxi service, but with the ability to cover greater distances at less than half the cost of services like Uber or Bolt.’

The Fetch car system has the backing of both the government and Milton Keynes City Council, which sees rental systems like this as a way of reducing the number of cars on the roads.

The council said it was ‘supportive of any new technologies that can revolutionise the way we travel, making it more sustainable’.

‘Driverless cars is just one of the solutions we’re looking at along with larger shuttles that use similar technology. The idea is to make shareable transport more attractive,’ the authority said.

However, the RAC has expressed concern about the new scheme.

RAC road safety spokesperson Simon Williams said: ‘While this scheme has been tested very successfully over an 18-month period, we worry that the experience of remotely driving a vehicle distances the driver from the potential road safety consequences in a video game-like manner.

‘Although the remote driver has a reasonable view in front and around them by not being present in the vehicle they are – like it or not – somewhat disconnected from the reality of actually being behind the wheel. 

‘There’s also a risk they could be distracted by something in the room where they are located. 

‘We also fear there could be serious consequences when this scheme is rolled out more widely and if the delivery distances were to be lengthened to take in faster roads.’

While originally offered as a paying service in Milton Keynes only with a fleet of just four vehicles, Imperium Drive said it plans to roll it out across the country.

The aim is to connect with other urban areas and key transport interchanges, such as airports.

Fetch, seen here during its trial in Milton Keynes, allows customers to use an app to summon a car 

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The Law Commission says there are a number of safety challenges that need to be considered around the use of remote driving tech.

This includes establishing reliable connectivity, driver situational awareness, a possible sense of ‘detachment’ from the physical world, and cybersecurity – such as the threat of a terrorist seizing control of a vehicle.

The commission concludes in its advice that remote driving on roads and public places should only be allowed if companies obtain special permissions.

There is currently no specific UK legal requirement for a driver to be in the vehicle they are controlling.

The review also stated that a remote driver should be responsible for their actions in the same way as someone sitting behind the wheel of a vehicle, but there should be no liability for faults beyond their control such as connectivity failures.

Not the first driverless vehicle trial in Milton Keynes… 

With an open-minded local authority, burgeoning 5G network and a healthy dose of Government grants, autonomous vehicle developers have set up shop in Milton Keynes in the hope that they will be the first to crack the code and open the floodgates more widely for driverless cars worldwide. 

Last year, MailOnline briefly stepped into this futuristic world to find out how it got on during a real-world test when reporter Jacob Thorburn took the Aurrigo AutoPod out for a 15-minute test drive in his hometown. 

At the time, people were returning to the road enmasse after the Covid-19 pandemic. Figures from navigation app Waze showed drives for leisure, travel and errands exceeded pre-Covid levels and were up by an average of 130%.

Engineers from Coventry-based Aurrigo developed the vehicle and software for their AutoPod – a self-driving, battery-powered vehicle with a top speed of 15mph and a 60-mile range.

Through a combination of its 5G connection, 360 degree cameras dotted around the outside of the vehicle and its LiDAR – the same technology used by the military to map out a battlefield – the AutoPod is a fully autonomous vehicle capable of reacting to its surroundings in real-time

The route taken by our reporter Jacob Thorburn on the Aurrigo last year at Stadium MK

Partners include Amazon, Thales and Vodafone and they’re growing rapidly with their sales operation already seeing business in Australia, Canada and the USA.

Through a combination of its 5G connection, six 360° cameras dotted around the outside of the vehicle and its LiDAR – the same technology used by the military to map out a battlefield – the AutoPod is a fully autonomous vehicle capable of reacting to its surroundings in real-time.

Residents in Milton Keynes already have plenty of experience when it comes to understanding the benefits of self-driving vehicles.

The town has grown accustomed to watching autonomous six-wheeled Starship Robots trundling along the town’s winding pedestrian footpaths, known as redways because of their distinctive colour.

Residents in Milton Keynes already have plenty of experience when it comes to understanding the benefits of self-driving vehicles. A fleet of more than 200 six-wheeled Starship Robots are often seen trundling along the town’s winding footpaths

The Starship Robots are loaded up with shopping before taking it to a member of the public’s home, and saw a boom in popularity throughout the Covid pandemic [File picture]

The fleet of tiny white robots, which deliver shopping and food deliveries across the town’s estates, has now grown to more than 200 and many residents admit they can’t picture life without them.

This appears to be a particularly pertinent time for manufacturers to get into autonomous vehicle industry, as the global market for driverless cars is expected to reach more than £407 billion by the end of 2026.

In the future, users will be able to load up the Aurrigo app, hail their autonomous ride and then continue on their journey. 

The company already has a fully electric 10-seater shuttle that it hopes will be eligible for use on road in the near future.