A consortium of companies is planning to test a fleet of driverless vehicles between Oxford and London in 2019.
The DRIVEN consortium – which benefits from an £8.6 million grant awarded by Innovate UK – said in a statement that the vehicles will be operating at Level 4 autonomy – meaning they have the capability of performing all safety-critical driving functions and monitoring roadway conditions for an entire trip, with zero-passenger occupancy.
The consortium said that no connected and autonomous vehicle trial at this level of complexity and integration had ever been attempted anywhere in the world.
The consortium added that its work would include the use of a fleet of six inter-communicating vehicles equipped with Selenium, Oxbotica's vehicle manufacturer (OEM) agnostic software.
The consortium conceded that a key challenge would be how to insure autonomous fleets of vehicles. It said that it planned to develop a system that automatically would take into account data from the vehicle and external sources that surround it, for example, traffic control systems. The project would “radically transform how insurance and autonomous vehicles will work together in connected cities.”
According to the statement, the project also would address data protection and cyber-security concerns raised by international policymakers and law enforcement agencies around the world by defining common security and privacy policies related to connected and autonomous vehicles.
In addition to Oxbotica, other partners involved in the U.K. project include Oxford Robotics Institute, reinsurer XL Catlin, Nominet, Telefonica O2 UK, Transport Research Laboratory, the U.K. Atomic Energy Authority's RACE, Oxfordshire County Council, Transport for London, and Westbourne Communications.
Commenting on DRIVEN's launch, Dr. Graeme Smith, chief executive of Oxbotica, said, “Today's news is truly ground-breaking. No company, group or consortium of autonomy experts has ever attempted what DRIVEN is planning over the next 30-months. We are seeking to address some of the most fundamental challenges preventing the future commercial deployment of fully autonomous vehicles. I have full confidence in DRIVEN's world-leading and internationally respected team of specialists to deliver this project.”
Professor Paul Newman, head of the Oxford Robotics Institute based at the University of Oxford, and one of Oxbotica's founders, said, “DRIVEN is the first of its kind and brings a host of new questions surrounding the way these vehicles will communicate with each other. We're moving from the singleton autonomous vehicle, to fleets of autonomous vehicles – and what's interesting to us at the Oxford Robotics Institute is what data the vehicles share with one another, when, and why.”
Richard Jinks, who leads the project at XL Catlin, said, “Working on this project gives us the opportunity to work with leading external parties to create a risk profiling tool and insurance pricing mechanism which is truly revolutionary.”