Government awards millions to West Midlands firms trialing autonomous vehicle technology

The Government has awarded more than £22m of funding to projects – many in the West Midlands – developing off-road autonomous vehicles.

The vehicles will operate in some of the most extreme environments and could revolutionise productivity in the construction and mining industries, while others look at trialing ‘Mobility as a Service’ (Maas) services.

The funding will benefit a total of 22 projects, including those by sector-leading companies such as Jaguar Land Rover and Caterpillar.

The £22.4m builds on the government’s Industrial Strategy commitment to ensure the UK is a world-leader in new technologies that will boost competitiveness, and is a central part of the Future of Mobility Grand Challenge, which includes a commitment to have fully self-driving vehicles on UK roads by 2021.

Other projects are looking into solving drivers’ parking woes.

The investments mean the UK Government is now supporting 73 connected and autonomous vehicle R&D projects; a portfolio worth around £180m.

Automotive Minister Richard Harrington said: “Through these competitions, we are offering innovative businesses support to take their projects to the next level and help them achieve commercial success. The projects that we are nurturing mean that we are a step closer to securing our place as a world leader in self-driving vehicles.

“This significant investment is a mark of the innovation that is at the heart of our modern Industrial Strategy. The development of new technologies is a cornerstone of the UK’s world-class science and research and will ensure that we deliver a Britain fit for the future by creating jobs and the skills needed to succeed.”

Projects benefiting in the West Midlands are:

Autoplex
Autoplex is a project combining connectivity and AVs to significantly enhance the cars view and capability at junctions where there may be significant differences in traffic over time and where environmental/junction layouts/elevations on approach mean a clear view is not possible
• Lead: Jaguar Land Rover
• Consortium Partners: Highways England, Inrix UK, Ricardo UK, Siemens, University Of Warwick, West Midlands Combined Authority

AID CAV
The project will develop the components in a vehicle from those supporting traditional driving to those which can deliverer autonomous driving – through ‘drive by wire’ technology and vehicle control algorithms. The components developed will be reconfigurable, which means CAV manufacturers will have no extra cost – opening the market to new entrants.
• Lead: Delta Motorsport
• Consortium Partners: Alcon Components, Cranfield University, Potenza Technology, Titan Motorsport & Automotive Engineering, University of Warwick

RoadLoc
RoadLoc aims to provide a reliable vehicle localisation framework for thorough and low cost testing under real on-road operating conditions independent of other sensor or communication requirements.
• Lead: Machines With Vision
• Consortium Partners: Durham University, Jaguar Land Rover

Digital CAV Proving Ground Feasibility Study
• Lead: Horiba Mira
• Consortium Partners: Coventry University

Certification of Autonomous Vehicles in Synthetic Environments
• Lead: XPI Simulation
• Consortium Partners: Thales UK, University of Warwick

LAMBDA-V
Learning through AMBient Driving styles for Autonomous-Vehicles (LAMBDA-V)
• Lead: CLOUD MADE
• Consortium Partners: Birmingham City Council, TRAKM8, Transport Simulation Systems (TSS)

ParkAV
ParkAV – the business and data chain for Automated Valet Parking
• Lead: Yellow Line Parking
• Consortium Partners: Coventry City Council, Jaguar Land Rover, Westminster City Council