Driverless cars will be a focus in English classrooms from October as part of an education initiative supported by Bermuda-based XL Catlin.

Code Smart is an innovative computing and robotics education initiative seeks to encourage students to take up coding and design transport solutions.

It is based on the work of UK autonomous vehicle software company, Oxbotica, and is supported by XL Catlin. Code Smart aims to inspire students to think about careers in robotics, artificial intelligence and STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering & Maths).

In England, information and communications technology is being replaced by computing — a move that requires schools to develop students’ software and hardware skills.

Code Smart uses the real-world example of driverless cars and artificial intelligence to appeal to a broad range of students.

Paul Newman, co-founder at Oxbotica, said: “The world is becoming defined by the code we write. It’s everywhere — it brings us together, keeps us safer, entertains, drives, discovers, learns and earns. As such, we’re proud to support an outstanding educational resource that so energetically encourages the development of coding skills — it matters.”

Vincent Branch, chief executive for Accelerate, XL Catlin, said: “Autonomy provides a great opportunity to excite and shape our future world; encouraging this discussion and debate in our classrooms will inspire the next generation of talent to help this become a reality for us all.”

Chip Cunliffe, director of sustainable development, XL Catlin, said: “As a global (re) insurer, building future-focused risk solutions that help business and society adapt to the ever-changing technologies evolving our world is part of our mission. Educational outreach through high-quality education programmes like Code Smart is a natural extension of that commitment.”