THOUSANDS of Brits will be shuttled around in driverless buses in plans for a 'future city'.
The self-driving, zero-emission shuttles will be piloted in Sunderland after receiving £6m in government and industry funding.
The Sunderland Advanced Mobility Shuttle project will trial three self-driving Aurrigo Auto-Shuttles.
A safety driver will be on board the shuttles just in case.
These futuristic-looking vehicles will transport passengers on public roads between Sunderland Interchange, Sunderland Royal Hospital and the University of Sunderland City Campus.
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And the initiative is led by Sunderland City Council in partnership with Aurrigo, Stagecoach, Angoka Ltf, Newcastle University and Bai Communications.
The project has received a £3m government grant matched by industry pros - which totals £6m.
Liz St Louis, director of Smart Cities at Sunderland City Council, said to Chronicle Live: "Leveraging the power of 5G technology and Sunderland’s leading smart city infrastructure.
"The focus of our ambitious project partners is underpinned by an ethos of leaving no one and nowhere behind.
"Connected and Automated Vehicles (CAVs) will provide huge social, industrial and economic benefits across the world and we’re hugely optimistic about a technology-fuelled future, powered by local expertise, right here in Sunderland."
The grants are part of the Centre for Connected and Autonomous Vehicles Connected and Automated Mobility programme.
It aims to help UK companies seize early opportunities to develop experimental projects.
Paul Butler, CEO at the North East Automotive Alliance, said: "The North East region is uniquely placed to develop, test and commercialise Connected and Autonomous Logistics (CAL) projects.
"It is home to a critical mass of local manufacturing industry, with ambitious growth plans.
"We are delighted to be awarded V-CAL project funding to be able to scale and expand the initial 5G CAL proof of concept, which ended in 2022, and provide two real industrial use cases for the scale and deployment of connected and autonomous logistics."
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