Next year, Jerusalem will be the first city in Israel to put self-driving cars on the roads.

Amnon Shashua, the chairman and co-founder of collision avoidance technology developer Mobileye, which is headquartered in Jerusalem's Har Hotzvim high-tech park, told Yediot Ahronot: "We are talking to the necessary ministries and preparing the base that will allow extensive experiments with self-driving cars in Israel.

"Jerusalem will be the first Israeli city in which we will carry out the advanced mapping required for the safe future operation of self-driving cars. We have already conducted tests with five prototypes in the city and by the end of 2017 we will have 12 such cars operating on the city's roads."

He added: "Jerusalem is one of the world's most complicated cities for driving. We can really test the capabilities of self-driving cars, study traffic and the cars' responses, which will teach important lessons for all world cities."

Mobileye, which is traded on the New York Stock Exchange, has a value of $8.1 billion and a 70 per cent market share in self-driving car sensors.