AUTONOMOUS vehicles will save cities the size of Glasgow and Edinburgh will save up to £45 million a year by cutting road crashes, according to a report on the future of automated transport technology.

The mass roll out of automated cars, vans and lorries in the coming decades "could reduce both the number and severity of road accidents substantially" by removing the danger of human error, which is a factor in more than 90 per cent of all road collisions.

The 'Making Better Places' report by Parsons Brinckerhoff, the engineering company behind the new Queen Elizabeth University Hospital in Glasgow, predicts that a shift towards fully autonomous vehicles capable of navigating traffic without a driver will become the norm, making roads safer for pedestrians and cyclists as well as vehicle occupants.

David Campbell, technical director at Parsons Brinckerhoff, said: “Driverless cars and autonomous vehicles have huge potential to transform Scotland’s city centre transport network.

“With the vast majority of car crashes taking place due to driver error, this transformational technology could improve safety, reduce congestion and lower emissions.

“This also fits extremely well with a lot of the place making strategies which encourage safer walking and cycling routes.

“Our research shows that the introduction of autonomous vehicles to Scotland’s cities, where accidents tend to involve more pedestrians and cyclists, could therefore generate large reductions in accident numbers saving between £25-£45 million a year.”

Unlike driverless cars - where a qualified driver must still be at the wheel and able to take over manually in an emergency - AV's can move while empty or shuttle occupants from place to place while allowing them to engage in tasks other than driving for the duration of the journey.

The authors also predict that the amount of urban space given over to parking will be significantly reduced as AV's pick up and drop off passengers before moving on to collect others in the same way, and private ownership of vehicles diminishes.

As the AV's will be electric-powered, they will also cut greenhouse gas emissions, and could also potentially signal the end for traffic lights, road signs and even motorway lanes if autonomous vehicles that are connected to each other became the norm.

Rachel Skinner, Parsons Brinckerhoff development director and report author, said: “Autonomous vehicles will be transformational. There is enormous potential for a new generation of living streets and communities, designed for vehicles, but putting people first. The technology is arriving fast, so now we need leadership at all levels to achieve this vision”.