Driverless cars move a gear closer with £1.7m project

CARS that can self-diagnose, detect hazards automatically and share information with other cars are closer to becoming a reality.

An autonomous “driverless” car project led by Huddersfield-based digital technology company Control F1 has received funding from Innovate UK.

A £1.36m grant from Innovate UK, which finds and supports technological innovations that will grow the UK economy.

The i-Motors project will also include the University of Nottingham’s Geospatial Institute and Human Factors Research Group, traffic management firm InfoHub, sensor specialists Head Communications and telecoms firm Huduma.

These partners have invested the rest of the £1.7m to push forward the project.

It is setting out to establish universal standards on how vehicles communicate with other machines.

A mobile platform will be developed, accessible to manufacturers, to transfer and store data which will be analysed by the team.

Vehicles will be able to report errors, and sensors will be developed capable of transmitting data to the cloud in real time.

The production of connected cars, which have inbuilt “telematics” devices,is estimated to rise from around 0.8 million in 2015 to 2 million in 2025, accounting for 95% of all cars produced in the UK.

i-Motors already has the backing of Nottingham, Coventry and Sheffield City Councils, where the new technology will first be piloted.

The project will make use of live vehicle data provided by Ford, which has an ongoing relationship with the University of Nottingham.

Control F1 managing director Andy Dumbell said: “We are delighted to have been awarded the funding by Innovate UK to lead on this ground-breaking project. Connected and driverless cars offer us the opportunity to make huge strides in terms of reducing congestion, bringing down emissions, and even saving lives. Yet as is always the case when dealing with big data, it’s only effective if you know how to use it. We believe that through i-Motors we can set the standard for connected and autonomous vehicles and redefine the future of our streets, highways and cities.”

Dr Xiaolin Meng, associate professor and UK Director of Sino-UK Geospatial Engineering Centre at the University of Nottingham, said: “We look forward to using our geospatial expertise and research to design a new data-sharing platform for autonomous vehicles.

“An intelligent mobility project such as i-Motors will allow us to work directly with industry to help make road use safer and more efficient, and we would like to thank Innovate UK for its generous financial support.”