Driverless cars are to be tested on the streets of London this week as part of a plan to deploy the UK's first completely autonomous fleet on British roads by Christmas.

A Government-backed consortium will deploy cars to map the streets of Hounslow in West London to teach them to understand road signs and lane markings following successful tests in Oxford.

The cars will be able to share data with each other, such as warnings about obstacles on the road, to improve how vehicles perform under different conditions on the road.

The consortium, led by Oxford University spinoff Oxbotica, aims to run a fleet of autonomous vehicles between Oxford and London in 2019 following tests in both cities.

The consortium, which also includes insurance provider AXA, UK registry domain Nominet and Telefonica, was awarded an £8.6 million grant from Innovate UK to run the trials.

Dr Graeme Smith, chief executive of Oxbotica, said: "These trials further demonstrate to the wider UK public that connected and autonomous vehicles will play an important role in the future of transport. This milestone shows the advanced state of our capabilities and firmly keeps us on the road to provide the technology needed to revolutionise road travel."

The vehicles will be fitted with software from Oxbotica as well as radar and a variety of sensors, on board computers and cameras.