Driverless cars complete week-long trial in London

The DRIVEN consortium, a 30-month government-supported project, demonstrated the capabilities of a fleet of self-driving vehicles in London’s challenging and complex urban environment.

The jointly-funded £13.6 million programme, gave a week-long demonstration around Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park in Stratford, establishing autonomous vehicle (AV) technology in challenging every-day conditions.

The DRIVEN programme aimed to prove that autonomous vehicles can operate smoothly, safely and legally in complex real-life situations on typical public London roads. 

DRIVEN says that it has examined the entire autonomous vehicle ‘ecosystem’. It combines a wide range of technical experts in areas such as local authority planning, insurance, cyber-security and data trading. The project is adhering fully to the Department for Transport’s Code of Practice and Transport for London’s (TfL) recently published London-specific guidance for Connected and Autonomous Trials.

Minister of State at the Department for Transport, George Freeman MP, said: “Self-driving technology has the scope to revolutionise the way people travel, with potentially profound benefits for road safety, accessibility and ​convenience. ​We want to drive the roll-out of self-driving vehicles and continue to support innovators developing this ground-breaking technology. The success of trials like project DRIVEN underpin our Future of Mobility: Urban Strategy, highlighting our ongoing support for innovation, research and the trialling of exciting new technology which cements our position as a global leader in this space.”

The prototype vehicles have succeeded driving in complex urban environments without the need for human input, which is said to have ‘exceeded the initial plan’ in terms of complexity and achievement.