There are a few other tech-related budget measures, such as £160 million ($211 million) for 5G networks, £100 million for computer science teachers, £76 million ($100 million) for skill development and £75 million ($99 million) for the UK's budding AI industry.

The budget contributions may be necessary given the UK's ambitious goals. Finance minister Philip Hammond wants self-driving cars to roam British streets in 3 years -- that's not a lot of lead time when companies like Nissan only recently started conducting public tests. And while EV funding isn't new (that was present in the Spring Budget, for instance), but the additional money could help create the infrastructure needed to keep autonomous vehicles running. There's no guarantee that any of these measures will put the UK ahead of the curve on driverless tech, but it should at least keep the nation from falling behind.