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Bits & Pieces: a) It seems that insurance companies are finally seeing the benefit of having a dash cam (digital camera fitted to the dashboard, windscreen or behind the rear view mirror) with dash cam maker Nextbase coming to an agreement with insurance comparison website, Constructaquote.com.

They will offer those with a dash cam fitted a 15% discount on insurance taken out through their website. This is particularly beneficial to those who privately finance a car but predominantly use it for business as these cars carry a premium that the 15% will help to neutralise.

b) The Government is looking into the proposals for driverless cars to be used on the streets of the UK. Consultations have started on the implications such as a rewritten Highway Code, street signs and the safety features such as lane departure and emergency braking. You can read the consultations by visiting www.gov.uk/government/consultations.

c) Glass’s Guide, the well known valuation experts, have suggested that the decision to exit the EU won’t affect used car prices till quarter 4 2016 at the earliest. Like most ‘experts’ they predicted the first to suffer would be fuel prices and property prices whilst I predicted – no change in my musings straight after the Brexit vote. Before the vote petrol at my local Tesco was £109.9 pence and yesterday – yep, it was the same! By Graham Hill

Following on from my views regarding the testing of driverless cars on public roads I’ve just read a piece on the likely changes to legislation that will be necessary. But before I get to that I have a couple of questions of my own. First of all what will be the eventual cost of one of these driverless cars?

Thinking of a change but unsure as to the best way to finance your car? Then you need a copy of my car finance book, Car Finance – A Simple Guide by Graham Hill. Click on the link below to buy the best car finance book on the market, available as a Kindle Book and Paper Back.

We know that electric cars have been a dismal failure. Very few people have taken them, not least because when you replace a traditional engine with an electric motor and install a big battery it adds, on average, £10,000 to the cost of the car. So with all the technology needed to replace a driver will they cost circa £100,000 or am I missing something? And why?

Why do I want to be in the driver’s seat of a driverless car? I actually quite enjoy driving and although I am about to replace my current car with the same car but the latest model, I’m getting excited. Can’t see me getting excited over a car I won’t be driving, a bit like getting excited over getting in a taxi. Will they reduce congestion? No, if anything more cars will appear on the roads.

Will they make the roads safer? I don’t think so. Communism is a great concept with everyone being treated equally but it can’t work as long as human beings have desires, aspirations and the basic need to be better than the next bloke. And so with driverless cars, they will only make roads safer if every driver has one.

Many pundits have suggested that driverless cars will provide ‘full business mobility’. People will be able to hold meetings in cars and work as they travel from A to B. What a load of tosh! Have they not heard of public transport, airplanes and chauffeurs? Improve public transport, especially trains and make it possible to travel to London from just outside Brighton without having to stand all the way in a carriage that uses an open window as a means of air conditioning.

Moving on to legislation? Does entering into the car’s control system the data needed to calculate the destination and speed make you a ‘driver’ and do you therefore need a licence? As I understand it some cars will be ‘highly automated’ whilst others will be ‘fully automated’, will both require a driving licence or just the highly automated vehicles?

If you need a licence to drive a highly automated vehicle one must assume that you could be convicted if caught using a mobile phone, eating at the wheel and not wearing a seatbelt. God forbid that you are caught drunk as a skunk in a driverless car, will you be convicted of drunk driving? For me the whole idea of driverless cars is a nonsense. But then I would have probably thought that you couldn’t improve on a horse and cart. I’ll get my coat! By Graham Hill

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• Driverless cars in California rack up four accidents since September (slashgear.com)

I’m feeling the little hairs on the back of my neck starting to bristle! And any regular readers of my newsletter/blog will know that if that happens something or someone has seriously pee’d me off! And I mean seriously pee’d me off (that’s polite speak for pissed me off ).

Thinking of a change but unsure as to the best way to finance your car? Then you need a copy of my car finance book, Car Finance – A Simple Guide by Graham Hill. Click on the link below to buy the best car finance book on the market, available as a Kindle Book and Paper Back.

That kindly bumbling old gent, Vince Cable, has done it again. Just as I though he couldn’t manage to do anything more during the course of this government that I would consider to be totally daft he did it again. He recently approved the testing of driverless cars on public roads in Bristol, Coventry, Milton Keynes and Greenwich.

He is following the USA who have allowed the testing of driverless cars in California, Nevada and Florida where they have roads bigger than the whole of the UK. So the odd stupid looking two seater driverless car poodling along a 10 lane 200 mile stretch of road, without the hint of a curve in it, won’t cause too much disruption.

But we live in a country where a dead badger on the opposite side of the road can lead to a 10 mile tailback as drivers take a closer look at the poor creature’s corpse as they drive by at walking speed. Just imagine the tailback as they drive past a car with no driver. ‘Wow kids look at that car – there isn’t a driver.’

Bang as they hit the car in front up the rear end! And the only driverless car I’ve seen being tested in the UK was in Greenwich toodling around at 2mph. Pedestrians were overtaking it for gawd sake! Now I’m not opposed to new technology and I would be happy for driverless cars to eventually be tested on UK public roads but whilst we need money in so many other areas should we be pumping money into such a project so early into the design stage?

And why do they need to test on our little public roads causing all sorts of problems? Here’s my idea, let the developers create driverless cars then when they are ready to test on public roads ship them over to Nevada and let the Americans stare at them and write their cars off in the process. I’m sure there will be some readers who disagree with me but I don’t care! I’m that kinda person! By Graham Hill

English: 2011 Nissan Leaf electric car at the 2011 Washington Auto Show (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Google led the way in the US by gaining permission to test their driverless cars on public roads. We are now about to follow suit with the Government giving permission for driverless cars to be tested on public roads in the UK, preferably somewhere in the North as I live in the Sarf.

Thinking of a change but unsure as to the best way to finance your car? Then you need a copy of my car finance book, Car Finance – A Simple Guide by Graham Hill. Click on the link below to buy the best car finance book on the market, available as a Kindle Book and Paper Back.

Researchers at Oxford University have been co-developing autonomous car tech with Nissan for some time and have already tested a prototype based on a Leaf (that’s their electric car not something hanging off a tree) on private roads and test tracks.

The announcement means that they will be able to carry out more extensive tests on quiet rural and suburban roads although to begin with they will have to test with a back-up driver as a safety precaution. By Graham Hill Car Finance

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• Report: UK to begin testing driverless cars in bid to ease congestion (autoblog.com)