-
State of French roads causing alarm
Spectacular images of roads that have collapsed or been blocked by mudslides this winter have prompted renewed concern about the state of France’s roads
-
A13 French motorway near Paris closed until at least May 1
Further tests must be carried out before repairs can begin. Traffic jams reached 400km long around Paris on Monday
-
Update: France’s A13 motorway closed for days, huge traffic jams
Crack in road has already damaged drainage apparatus of motorway
Look, no hands! Fancy test-driving an autonomous car?
Self-driving car technology development continues at speed
French car manufacturer PSA Group has become the first in the country to be granted official authorization to carry out testing of autonomous cars on public French roads, using ‘non-expert’ drivers.
The group, which owns Citroën and Peugeot, will begin testing in March on about 2,000km of French roads – with its own customers behind the wheel.
Since July 2015, professionally trained drivers have driven some 120,000km of Europe’s roads in PSA prototypes.
The group said in a statement that by 2020, some of its vehicles “will benefit from autonomous driving features enabling the driver to give the car full control”.
Competition to develop autonomous driving software is fierce in the car-making industry worldwide.
Stay informed:
Sign up to our free weekly e-newsletter
Subscribe to access all our online articles and receive our printed monthly newspaper The Connexion at your home. News analysis, features and practical help for English-speakers in France
In September 2016, Chinese-owned Swedish manufacturer Volvo teamed up with auto safety group Autoliv to develop driver assistance systems (ADAS) and autonomous drive (AD) systems, and also teamed up with Uber in a 300million deal to develop driverless cars. Volvo expect AD technology to be ready by 2021.
