DRIVEN roll-out driverless vehicles

The DRIVEN group demonstrated for the first time its fleet of autonomous vehicles that interact and ‘talk’ to each other.

From its headquarters at the RACE Building at the Culham Science Centre in Abingdon, DRIVEN set two of its vehicles, a white and blue 2014 Ford Fusion Titanium hybrid and a 2017 Ford Mondeo hybrid on the roads to show assembled media the latest milestone in the project.

Using their array of lidar sensors, on board computers, and cameras, the cars were able to navigate the site autonomously, encountering pedestrians, cyclists and other traffic.

Project director and Oxbotica CEO Dr Graeme Smith said, ‘This is a significant landmark in the development of vehicle autonomy, which has always been about more than simply self-driving. This public trial demonstrates that our technology is able to share data and information that vehicles are then able to use to plot more effective routes, avoid potential hazards, and anticipate conditions more effectively. This will have huge implications on the way autonomous vehicles will operate and how the future of road travel in the UK looks, improving safety, efficiency and productivity.’

DRIVEN, which is in receipt of an £8.6 million government grant designed to stimulate the development of new technologies, is a project that will see a fleet of level 4 autonomous vehicles being deployed in urban areas and on motorways, finishing in multiple end-to-end journeys between London and Oxford in 2019.

DRIVEN’s fleet of vehicles can currently be seen conducting urban trials around the streets of Oxford.