New man Ozgur Tohumcu takes the wheel at driverless car developer

Driverless car software company Oxbotica, which is up for a Evening Standard Business Award, has hired a new chief executive.

The recruitment is part of a bid to ramp up sales and find new partners.

Ozgur Tohumcu joins from start-up Tantalum, a connected car services and payments company, having previously spent five years as an executive at Ericsson.

The firm completed a £14 million funding round in September 2018 and has been testing its autonomous vehicle technology across London.

Oxbotica is also working on a project to bring self-driving taxis to London with Addison Lee.

It is hoped that once vehicles become fully autonomous, and humans are no longer driving, roads will be a lot safer.

According to the World Health Organisation, 1.25 million die every year because of road traffic accidents. With roads run by software, the hope is that road death will significantly decrease.