A new study has identifying the potential impact autonomous vehicle services could have on major UK cities in the future.
The report was completed by SHIFT, a collaboration between Oxford-based autonomous vehicle software company Oxbotica, Imperial College London and Transport for London.
Its autonomous vehicle deployment report includes the creation of advanced traffic modelling to predict the demand and impact of autonomy on congestion, emissions, public transport and ride-sharing services.
As part of the project, Oxbotica has developed first-of-its-kind driver safety guidelines, an autonomous vehicle build order and a third-party data infrastructure system to help operators take proof-of-concept autonomous demonstrations to larger scale service deployments in the UK.
Dr Graeme Smith, senior vice president of external affairs, Oxbotica, said: “The knowledge gap has previously been how autonomous vehicles impact the area where they are deployed, but with SHIFT we have been able to begin to understand the nuts and bolts of real-world deployment.
“The outputs of SHIFT will enable any third party – from OEMs through to owners and operators – to deploy autonomous services in an urban environment in a way that suits their business model. This is the key to unlocking the true potential of autonomy.”
Outcomes from the SHIFT report are being used as part of Project Endeavour, which has been designed to accelerate and scale the adoption of autonomous vehicle services across the UK through advanced simulations. It also features trials on public roads across three major cities.
Read more: Project Endeavour to trial autonomous vehicles on Oxford roads
Furthermore, the build order and data infrastructure developed through SHIFT has been deployed by Oxbotica on a fleet of six vehicles. These began autonomously completing a nine-mile round trip from Oxford Parkway station to Oxford’s main train station last year.
Dr Panagiotis Angeloudis, reader in transport systems and logistics at Imperial College London, said: “The deployment of autonomous vehicle technologies has the potential to revolutionise mobility in cities around the world.
“Through the SHIFT project we had an opportunity to study their potential impacts on the rest of the transport network in an unprecedented level of detail. Through the tools that were developed, stakeholders can now plan better for the deployment of autonomous vehicle technologies and be better prepared for the future.”
