Autonomous cars to be trialled on London roads before Christmas 2018

Following successful ongoing trials in Oxford, the DRIVEN consortium, led by Oxbotica, has announced that it will commence autonomous trials on London’s roads in November 2018.

The vehicles will be mapping the streets of Hounslow and are expected to be autonomous by Christmas 2018.

During the trials, Nominet and AXA XL will be testing data transfer, making this the most all-encompassing autonomous vehicles trial to date.

Dr Graeme Smith, Chief Executive of Oxbotica, said: “Being autonomous before Christmas will showcase the huge amount of work Oxbotica’s expert team of engineers has completed since the DRIVEN consortium was established.

“These trials further demonstrate to the wider UK public that connected and autonomous vehicles will play an important role in the future of transport. This milestone shows the advanced state of our capabilities and firmly keeps us on the road to providing the technology needed to revolutionise road travel.”

The trials will begin with the mapping of Hounslow streets, selected for being an outer London Borough and its role as a key link between Oxford and London.

The data gathered will provide vital information to support the consortium’s plans to run a fleet of autonomous vehicles between Oxford and London in 2019. In the lead up to this, London trials will continue until summer 2019.

The mapping process means Oxbotica will be gathering data to help understand the contents of street signs and the meanings of lane markings, enabling the vehicles to be as knowledgeable as a local resident. This process will be repeated many times, and at different times, improving the understanding of how the streets change in different lighting conditions, weather and seasons of the year.

To conduct the mapping, the vehicles are fitted with a wide variety of technology including Oxbotica’s Selenium autonomy software, radar, lidar sensors, on-board computers and cameras.

As with all trials undertaken by DRIVEN, there will always be a fully qualified safety driver behind the steering wheel. They sit alongside an engineer monitoring the vehicle’s functions.

This marks a major project milestone for the DRIVEN consortium, formed of the Oxford Robotics Institute, AXA XL, Nominet, Telefonica, TRL, the UK Atomic Energy Authority’s robotics centre RACE, Oxfordshire County Council (OCC), Westbourne Communications and Transport for London (TfL).

Benefiting from an £8.6 million grant awarded by Innovate UK, it is an ambitious project that is looking beyond what makes one car autonomous and instead exploring what more could be done with an entire fleet.

Russell Haworth, CEO, Nominet, said: “Our role developing and strengthening the understanding of data flow and security within the backbone infrastructure needed for autonomous vehicles is vital if driverless cars are to become a mainstream reality. This next phase for DRIVEN ensures we are a step closer to achieving that goal as we find solutions and push the boundaries and perceptions of the technology required to make it happen.”