The Driven consortium, which seeks to address fundamental real-world challenges facing self-driving vehicles, has reached a key milestone in its 30-month project by demonstrating the capabilities of an AV fleet in London.
The jointly-funded £13.6m programme saw prototype vehicles successfully give a week-long demonstration around Stratford’s Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park to evaluate whether AVs can operate safely and legally in complex real-life situations, with a safety driver present, on typical public roads in Europe’s biggest city.
As well as aiming to overcome technical obstacles, the Driven programme, which also uses Oxford as a testbed, examines the entire AV ecosystem, taking into account factors such as local authority planning, insurance, cyber-security and data trading.
Project partners include Oxbotica, Oxford Robotics Institute, Axa XL, Nominet, Telefonica, TRL, Race, Oxfordshire County Council and Transport for London (TfL).
The project is adhering fully to the Department for Transport’s Code of Practice and TfL’s recently published London-specific guidance for Connected and Autonomous Trials.
Speaking on the significance of the event, Driven programme director and Oxbotica senior vice president, external affairs, Dr Graeme Smith said: “The completion of the Driven project marks a significant milestone for the future of autonomous vehicles in the UK.
“Establishing Britain as a world leader for innovative technologies has been at the heart of our mission and we’re incredibly proud of the steps we have taken to help make AVs a reality on our roads.”
