Jaguar Land Rover, Oxbotica AV Trials Announced
Autonomous vehicles will be publicly trialed in London and Edinburgh, a UK government minister has announced.
Vehicles for the trials will be supplied by Jaguar Land Rover, Oxbotica, and Addison Lee, and they will use technology developed by Fusion Processing, the University of Nottingham, and the University of the West of England. The announcement was made by Business Secretary Greg Clark on a visit to Oxbotica. The suppliers were chosen through a tender process, and will collectively be awarded £25M for the trials from the government’s Connected and Autonomous Vehicles Intelligent Mobility Fund.
Clark boasted: “Self-driving cars will revolutionize the way we move goods and people around the UK. These industrial strategy projects and investments are exciting examples of our long-term plan … to develop the new vehicles and technologies and from 2021 the public will get to experience the future for themselves”.
The government also claimed the trials would use “social behavioral research to further explore how driverless technology can seamlessly integrate into society”. Transport Minister Jesse Norman added AV tech would “bring significant benefits to people right across the country, improving mobility and safety, and driving growth across the UK”.
The government also announced the awarding of £18M for four projects to be developed under the aegis of the Meridian consortium’s second and third phases. These projects will include the creation of a data exchange platform for automotive technology providers and fleet operators and the development of AV “test environments”. Meridian is a consortium comprised of mobility tech companies, academics, and politicians.
Separately, Oxbotica is claiming the Driven consortium it leads will begin trials of its AVs in Hounslow, west London by the end of this week, with data transfer tech being trialed by fellow Driven members Nominet and AXA XL.
