Mercedes Benz parent company Daimler has partnered with automotive suppplier Bosch for an alliance to drive the development of self-driving vehicles.

The alliance aims to develop a software and algorithms for system that can bring fully automated (SAE-Level 4) and driverless (SAE-Level 5) vehicles to city streets by the start of the next decade.

Bosch and Daimler's aims include improving urban traffic flows and enhancing road safety, as well as making car sharing a more attractive prospect. The companies believe driverless cars will 'allow people to make optimum use of the time they spend in cars, and open up new ways of being mobile to people without driver’s licenses'.

"The idea behind it is that the vehicle will come to the driver, not the other way around," reads Bosch's statement on the parntership. "Within a predetermined urban area, people can conveniently use their smartphones to book a car share or an urban automated taxi that comes to them ready to take them to their destination."