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…Industry and Government funded project DRIVEN, shows that autonomous vehicles can operate safely in London’s complex urban environment, cementing the UK’s leadership in this area…

LONDON, 2^nd October: The DRIVEN consortium today celebrated a key milestone in this 30-month government-supported project by demonstrating the capabilities of a fleet of self-driving vehicles in London’s challenging and complex urban environment.

The jointly-funded £13.6m programme, which is the most ambitious of its kind, gave a week-long demonstration around Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park in Stratford—establishing the UK’s world-leading autonomous vehicle (AV) technology in challenging every-day conditions. The DRIVEN programme – powered by Oxbotica’s autonomous software – confirms that autonomous vehicles can operate smoothly, safely and legally in complex real-life situations, with a safety driver present, on typical public roads in Europe’s biggest mega-city.

DRIVEN has taken a comprehensive approach to addressing the challenges facing self-driving vehicles in the cities of London and Oxford, going beyond the technical obstacles and examining 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 coalition of experts include Oxbotica, Oxford Robotics Institute, Axa XL, Nominet, Telefonica, TRL, RACE, Oxfordshire County Council (OCC) and Transport for London (TfL). 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.”

Speaking on the significance of the event, DRIVEN Programme Director and Oxbotica Senior Vice President, External Affairs, Dr Graeme Smith said:

“The completion of the DRIVEN project marks a significant milestone for the future of autonomous vehicles in the UK. Establishing Britain as a world leader for innovative technologies has been at the heart of our mission and we’re incredibly proud of the steps we have taken to help make AVs a reality on our roads.”  

From Nominet and Axa XL’s collaboration developing situational risk management capabilities, to ORI’s data trading algorithms and O2’s role in ensuring safe and secure communications, DRIVEN has proved invaluable in fostering meaningful technological developments in the autonomous vehicle space. Similarly, OCC, TfL, RACE and TRL’s work has contributed to safe trials across a range of locations, helping cement the UK as a global testbed for innovation.

The £13.6m DRIVEN initiative – with matched funding from UK Research and Innovation’s Industrial Strategy Challenge Fund and industry – has sought to address fundamental real-world challenges facing self-driving vehicles. It has focused on completing fully autonomous routes within the dense complex urban environments of London and Oxford, showing Oxbotica’s UK-developed technology’s competitive advantage in such environments.

The prototype vehicles have succeeded driving in complex urban environments without the need for human input, exceeding the initial plan in terms of complexity and achievement. This means that fully autonomous vehicles have made an important step forward towards everyday operation on our roads.

Additional quotes from DRIVEN partners

Ozgur Tohumcu, CEO of Oxbotica: “These trials further demonstrate to the wider UK public that connected and autonomous vehicles will play an important role in the future of transport. This milestone shows the advanced state of our capabilities and confirms that Oxbotica is well placed to lead the commercial rollout of AVs globally.”

Adam Leach, Managing Director of New Ventures, Nominet: “For autonomous cars to become mainstream, the correct framework must be in place so they can run safely and effectively. We have played a key part in DRIVEN, developing and applying cyber security tools, technologies and expertise to CAVs and the supporting digital infrastructure which is vital to the future development of this sector. Working as part of this strong consortium, and other projects in future, we will continue to tackle the key challenges presented by the changing landscape of cyber-security.”

Michael Hurwitz, Director of Innovation, Transport for London: “Autonomous vehicle technology has the potential to significantly change travel – and that’s why the Mayor’s Transport Strategy commits us to engaging with innovative companies, both now and in the future, at the earliest available opportunity. TfL recently published new London-specific guidance for autonomous vehicle trials which it expects all organisations to adhere to. It promotes responsible and safe trials, as well as encouraging trials which are environmentally friendly and benefit the city, complementing our focus on walking, cycling and green public transport. Being part of trials like DRIVEN helps to ensure companies really understand London’s transport priorities and the need for the technology to develop in a way which supports our goals.”

Llewelyn Morgan, Head of Innovation, Oxfordshire County Council: “The DRIVEN project has been a key project in not only enabling the Council to engage and understand how CAV can work to solve some of our mobility problems but also as to galvanise the Council’s commitment to Innovation, we now have one of the largest teams in the UK utilising external and partnership funding to deliver Innovation across many of our functions in Oxfordshire and much of that has stemmed from initial days of working with DRIVEN partners so the impact has gone way beyond CAV sector itself.”

Iwan Parry, Market Development Lead for New Mobility, TRL: “The DRIVEN autonomous vehicle project has seen a number of milestones come to fruition over the last two years. As part of this innovative project, we have been engaging with the insurance sector to help them understand the evidence they require to adapt their business and insurance pricing models when underwriting connected and automated vehicle trials, in readiness for commercial deployment of CAVs at scale in the UK. We are also using the lessons learned from the DRIVEN trials in the safety framework we are developing as part of the new specifications for regulating the safe conduct of technology testing on public roads in the UK.”

Adrian Copland, COO, Accelerate, Axa XL: “Autonomous technologies will have an incredible impact on society, from creating safer working environments to providing mobility for those most in need. We were delighted to be able to bring our risk management and insurance capabilities to the DRIVEN projects all while learning first-hand about the risks associated with the technology. The knowledge we have acquired through our involvement in DRIVEN has already allowed us to provide insurance solutions to a number of our clients’ autonomy initiatives.”

John Aloy, Managing Partner – Travel and Transport, O2 – Telefonica UK: “At Telefonica O2 we are proud to have played a part in this ground-breaking project. Being involved in such trials allows us to see how secure reliable communications are crucial to the success of CAV’s and helps us assess how we can support the future network demands of CAV’s and the supporting infrastructure. We continue to work in collaboration with leading British Innovators, UK Government and UK CAV Test Beds in order to ensure we adequately addresses the current and future digital needs of our emerging CAV / ITS communities.”

Contact Details

Cicero Group
DRIVEN@cicero-group.com
020 7297 5954

By Dr Graeme Smith, Programme Director – DRIVEN

Since 2017, a small consortium of forward-thinking UK companies have been developing key component technologies of the self-driving vehicle eco-system within an ambitious project called DRIVEN (www.drivenby.ai).

I’m delighted to announce that at the end of September there will be a week-long demonstration of the project at Lee Valley VeloPark in Stratford Olympic Park, London Borough of Newham as part of a showcase event. By demonstrating the ability of our self-driving vehicles to navigate themselves though this modern urban environment the consortium will showcase the significant progress on many fronts that has been made throughout the project.

DRIVEN has focused on developing and demonstrating world-leading autonomous vehicle capabilities in complex, urban environments. We have looked far beyond the car itself and as well as developing autonomous vehicles capable of operating at Level 4/5, we have also developed and proven a cloud-based eco-system which combines real-time insurance and risk assessment with cybersecurity over robust communication infrastructure.  This holistic approach has enabled us to operate and co-ordinate a fleet of autonomous vehicles across a range of locations, with public road trials throughout Oxford and London.

From real-time insurance to cyber-security and data trading, this £13.6m R&D initiative has holistically addressed the fundamental real-world challenges facing self-driving vehicles. Finding answers to these necessary and challenging questions will be essential in securing a successful future of autonomous vehicles. With DRIVEN, we have played a leading role in taking the step towards such a future.

Led by Oxbotica, DRIVEN has brought together a coalition of experts from across industry and academia, including Nominet, AXA XL, Telefonica, TRL, the University of Oxford, RACE, Oxfordshire County Council and Cicero Group.  The consortium itself builds upon an £8.6m grant from Innovate UK and it has been positive to see continued Government support for its approach to the autonomous vehicle landscape and broader support or UK-based innovation.

From Friday 27^th September to Friday 4^th October, we will be inviting key stakeholders, members of the public, and media representatives to attend a public exhibition and demo based at the Lee Valley VeloPark in Stratford.  In addition to our demonstrations of the project and vehicles in Stratford, we plan to continue our dissemination activities further.  Key consortium partner RACE – a UK Atomic Energy Authority (UKAEA) entity – will be hosting an event at Culham Science Centre on Thursday 3^rd October to mark the opening of its new Pit Lane. At this event, DRIVEN cars will be on show and information available on the project and its successes over the past four years. Additionally, Oxfordshire County Council will be hosting an exhibition in Oxford, demonstrating the crucial work that took place outside of the Capital throughout the project.

Establishing the UK as a world leader for innovative technologies has been at the heart of DRIVEN’s mission and projects like this one will play a key role bolstering the national ambition of boosting the economy’s competitiveness and productivity. The culmination of the DRIVEN marks a significant milestone for the future of autonomous vehicles in the UK, complementing our existing status as world leaders in technology and innovation more broadly.

Through the innovative outlook of this unique project, the DRIVEN partners are uniquely positioned to lead the debate and further exploration of the wider implications of autonomous vehicles owing to the broad sector expertise of the consortium. The DRIVEN partners have world-leading expertise in the development, testing and deployment of autonomous vehicles and we look forward to sharing our expertise at these flagship events.

Dr Graeme Smith,

Project Lead, DRIVEN

Senior Vice-President, External Affairs, Oxbotica

FAQs

What’s happening in Stratford?

DRIVEN vehicles are operating autonomously, with a safety driver behind the wheel, in and around Stratford with a base at the Lee Valley VeloPark. Between Friday 27^th September and Friday 4^th October there will be demos of the vehicles for key stakeholders and members of the press, alongside a public exhibition setting out further details of the DRIVEN project and the contribution of its consortium partners.

The exhibition will be open to the public from 27 September to 4 October 2019. Please feel free to come along and learn about the project for yourself!

How will other road users be affected?

Several vehicles will be operating on a pre-determined loop, beginning at Lee Valley VeloPark (see below) and each car will have a safety driver behind the wheel, monitoring the impact of the vehicles on other road users, and ready to intervene if needed.

Are the trials safe?

Safety is DRIVEN’s number one priority as a consortium, we would never undertake a trial without putting the necessary safety measures in space. We will be adhering to Transport for London’s guidelines throughout in order to promote safe and responsible trials in London. Though we have confidence in our vehicles’ autonomous capabilities, each car has a safety driver behind the wheel at all times, ready to intervene immediately should they need to do so. For more information on the safety considerations, please see the safety case infographic.

What data is being collected?

In general, DRIVEN vehicles have sensors that monitor the road environment, and we do record some sensor data to help us continually analyse and improve performance.  Privacy of data is a priority of the DRIVEN project and the data collected during DRIVEN’s autonomous trials is done so under the strict requirements of the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR).

Yesterday (Wednesday 18^th April 2018) the DRIVEN consortium demonstrated publicly for the first time the capabilities of its fleet of autonomous vehicles to 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, as well as Oxbotica’s Selenium autonomy and Caesium fleet tracking software, the cars were able to navigate the site autonomously, encountering pedestrians, cyclists and other traffic. Other consortium members Telefonica and Nominet, were on-hand to explain how the DRIVEN consortium is managing the security of this data to protect drivers and other vehicles from cyber security threats.

Speaking on the significance of the occasion, DRIVEN 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.”

Also commenting, Prof. Paul Newman, co-founder of Oxbotica and Director of the Oxford Robotics Institute said: “This demonstration shows once again that the UK is at the forefront of the next generation of travel, and that our expertise is second-to-none at a time when the country is looking to develop global trading links We hope and expect that the technology that DRIVEN is developing will be adopted by vehicle manufacturers all over the world as the first wave of autonomous vehicles, as the public imagines them, comes to market. Our work on display here today could revolutionise people’s lives, and the UK will get to share in an industry that could be worth billions in the years ahead.”

DRIVEN, which is in receipt of an £8.6 million government grant designed to stimulate the development of new technologies, is an ambitious project that will see a fleet of Level 4 autonomous vehicles being deployed in urban areas and on motorways, culminating in multiple end-to-end journeys between London and Oxford in 2019. By operating at Level 4 autonomy a vehicle has the capability of driving itself most of the time without any human input.

DRIVEN’s fleet of vehicles can currently be seen conducting urban trials around the streets of Oxford. By Q3 2018 the fleet will be six-strong. The wide-area road testing of the fleet is due to start in late-summer 2018 across a range of environments including low-speed urban and higher speed long distance motorway driving.

A key opportunity for the consortium and one of its members, global re/insurer XL Catlin, is to create a risk assessment tool to enable the user of the autonomous vehicle to make decisions about what level of autonomy and speed is appropriate for a wide set of driving conditions, and a new insurance proposition for autonomous vehicles. By 2019, the consortium plans to have developed a risk assessment tool that automatically processes a range of data from both the vehicle and external sources that surround it, for example traffic control systems.

ENDS

Photos and infographic can be found here.

Supporting quotes

Comments:

Adrian Copland, DRIVEN Project Leader at XL Catlin, said: “While autonomous vehicles are one of the most complex use cases of connected ecosystems in the world, I believe society will hugely benefit from them, providing insurers help make it a commercial –and insurable– reality. Being an active member of the DRIVEN consortium enables us to ingest, analyse and create insight from the huge datasets generated and puts us at the forefront of this ground-breaking innovation.”

Russell Haworth, CEO, Nominet said: “For autonomous cars to run safely and effectively, the correct framework must be in place, and so our role in DRIVEN is to increase and strengthen the understanding of data flow, sharing and security within the backbone digital infrastructure. Our work addressing infrastructure challenges will help ensure the UK is at the forefront of this exciting field.”

Dr Rob Buckingham, Director of RACE said: “We see ongoing testing as being vital to reap the potential benefits offered by autonomous vehicles. Our view is that we need different types of test environments: closed test tracks, open public spaces and semi-public spaces. Culham Science Centre is the latter. We have 10km of roads inside a fence with 2000 people going about their normal business, all year round. Furthermore, we have a very strong safety ethos that has contributed to Oxbotica having an unblemished safety record over the 18 months they have been testing AV on our roads. DRIVEN encompasses much more than ‘tech’: we are exploring insurance, cyber security and of course public engagement.”

Llewelyn Morgan, Oxfordshire County Council’s Service Manager for Infrastructure, Innovation and Development, said: “Oxfordshire was the first council in the UK to consider autonomous vehicles in its transport policy and has been a supporter of the development and application of this technology since its infancy in the UK.”

Iwan Parry, Head of Connected and Autonomous Vehicles at TRL said: “At TRL we recognise the potentially transformative impact of automated vehicle technologies and the need to support the development of this technology in its early on-road testing.  Drawing on TRL’s history of safety research, test method and policy advice, which has contributed to sustained reductions in road traffic collisions and severity over decades, we are very pleased to be supporting Oxbotica’s safety management processes with advice and assistance around risk mitigation and safety case development.   These approaches are essential to undertaking trials in public environments and an essential step towards realising the opportunities of autonomous vehicles in the future. 

“In addition to risk management and safety advice TRL is also developing a comprehensive understanding of automated vehicle operating risks to enable new insurance services and identifying opportunities to connect automated vehicles with urban traffic control systems, such as TRL’s SCOOT traffic control software, to optimise traffic efficiency in urban areas.

“TRL will further build on capabilities developed in this programme to support the launch of the Smart Mobility Living Lab in London, which will provide an on-road test environment for the testing of increasingly automated vehicle systems.”

The DRIVEN consortium welcomes the support announced in today’s (Wednesday 22^nd November) Budget by the Chancellor of additional regulatory changes and financial support to aid further development of autonomous vehicles.

Speaking on the announcement, Oxbotica CEO and DRIVEN consortium leader Graeme Smith said: “This support demonstrates that the government continues to be serious about ensuring the UK is an amazing place to develop autonomous vehicle technology. The ground-breaking research being undertaken by us here at Oxbotica and leveraged in our self-driving road trials within DRIVEN would not be possible without funding from central government”

“Following our meeting with the Prime Minister and Chancellor last week, it is good to see the UK technology sector being encouraged to accelerate development of a technology that will undoubtedly change society. Government support here has the potential to be repaid many times over as well, in terms of new, high-skilled jobs, enormous export potential, and improved productivity. By announcing these new measures and getting behind the drive towards autonomy, the UK government is showing it is not afraid of what the future holds, and that it wants to see Britain leading us into it.”

Last week, the DRIVEN consortium showcased its ground-breaking technology for the benefit of the Prime Minister and Chancellor of the Exchequer at Number 10 Downing Street. Graeme Smith and Professor Paul Newman, Director of the Oxford Robotics Institute (ORI), drove one of the specially modified cars to Downing Street and demonstrated the technology behind it all for Theresa May and Philip Hammond. This included part of the camera and lidar laser array that provides data to enable Selenium, the autonomous software at the heart of the car, to drive the vehicle.

Find pictures free to use here or check out DRIVEN on YouTube.

On Wednesday 15^th November, the DRIVEN consortium was given the chance to showcase its ground-breaking technology for the benefit of the Prime Minister and Chancellor of the Exchequer at Number 10 Downing Street. This was as part of an event held by the government to launch a series of measures to support the continued growth and success of the UK’s world-class tech sector.

DRIVEN project director Graeme Smith and Professor Paul Newman, Director of the Oxford Robotics Institute (ORI), drove one of the specially modified cars to Downing Street and showed Theresa May and Philip Hammond the technology behind it all. This included part of the camera and lidar laser array that provides data to enable Selenium, the autonomous software at the heart of the car, to drive the vehicle.

DRIVEN, which is in receipt of an £8.6 million government grant designed to stimulate the development of new technologies, is an ambitious and exciting project that will see a fleet of Level 4 autonomous vehicles being deployed in urban areas and on motorways, culminating in multiple end-to-end journeys between London and Oxford in 2019. By operating at Level 4 autonomy a vehicle has the capability of driving itself most of the time without any human input.

Speaking on the event, Graeme Smith said: “The DRIVEN project is making excellent progress and we are delighted to be able to demonstrate the fruits of our labours for the Prime Minister and the Chancellor. The UK is at the forefront of the autonomous vehicle revolution, which promises to completely change how people travel and could be worth billions to the country in exports and investment.”

Speaking on the significance of the investment, Prof. Paul Newman said: “DRIVEN has benefitted from government backing and this money will help ensure the UK retains its place as the pre-eminent location for technological research and development. The technology we are developing and accelerating through DRIVEN is foundational stuff and we, as a consortium, are all set to reply it across the entire spectrum vehicles.”

Testing of the autonomous software and vehicles is currently underway at RACE’s AV test facility at Culham Science Centre in Oxfordshire. During testing, fully licensed and specially trained safety drivers, will be in the vehicles at all times, ready and able take over the driving if necessary.

DRIVEN will be organising a public demonstration of its self-driving vehicles on selected roads around Oxford in early 2018.   The next six months will see DRIVEN’s fleet of vehicles increase to four, with urban trials taking place around the streets of Oxford. By Q3 2018, there are plans that the fleet will be six-strong. The wide-area road testing of the fleet is due to start in late-summer 2018 across a range of environments including low-speed urban and higher speed long distance motorway driving.

The vehicles are fitted with a wide variety of technology, including Oxbotica’s Selenium autonomy software, lidar sensors, on board computers, and cameras.  Through its members at Telefonica and Nominet, the DRIVEN consortium is ensuring maximum security of this data to protect drivers and other vehicles from cyber security threats.

A key opportunity for the consortium and particularly global re/insurer XL Catlin and TRL (the UK’s transport research laboratory), is the development of a real-time risk model that enables a better understanding of how to improve overall system performance across a range of real-world conditions. By 2019, the consortium plans to have developed a ‘Real-Time Risk Model’ that uses information from the vehicle and the infrastructure to determine a level of risk.

Testing of data sharing with insurance systems is due to take place from January 2018 and will enable development of ‘Insurance in the Loop’, under which cover is granted automatically when the vehicle is in autonomous mode. The system has the potential to radically transform how insurance and autonomous vehicles will work together in connected cities.

Today (Tuesday 5th September 2017) the DRIVEN consortium unveils the first three of its proposed fleet of six self-driving vehicles, a white and blue 2014 Ford Fusion Titanium hybrid, a 2017 Ford Mondeo hybrid and a Range Rover Evoque. The Range Rover Evoque will be on display to the media for two days at the Cenex Low Carbon Vehicle (LCV) Event 2017 in Millbrook, Bedfordshire from the 6th September 2017.

Speaking on the significance of the occasion, DRIVEN project director and Oxbotica CEO Graeme Smith said: “We’re hugely excited to be unveiling the cars we’ll be using to run our autonomous driving trials in our special DRIVEN livery. While local residents around our Oxford office will have had a few sneak previews of our first vehicle, now everyone can see our Land Rover Evoque, Ford Mondeo and Ford Fusion as they will appear early next year in self-driving mode on public roads around Oxford and then along the Oxford to London corridor.”

Also commenting, Steve Gooding, Director of the RAC Foundation said: “Testing the technology that enables autonomous driving is clearly an important part of the development process.

“High visibility branding of the test vehicles is a good thing, as they move from extensive off-road trials to streets where they’ll be mixing with everyday traffic, so that we know not to panic when we see one approaching with no-one holding the steering wheel.

“Possibly the most important thing about these trials is not the development of the technology as such but the building of our confidence in how it works, because that will be key to public acceptance of driverless vehicles both as road users and in time as potential passengers.”

DRIVEN, which is in receipt of an £8.9 million government grant designed to stimulate the development of new technologies, is an ambitious project that will see a fleet of Level 4 autonomous vehicles being deployed in urban areas and on motorways, culminating in multiple end-to-end journeys between London and Oxford in 2019. By operating at Level 4 autonomy a vehicle has the capability of driving itself most of the time without any human input.

Testing of key manoeuvres with the vehicles – including how to navigate roundabouts, tricky traffic junctions, and interaction with pedestrians, cyclists, and other vehicles – is already taking place at RACE’s AV test facility at Culham Science Centre in Oxfordshire. During testing, fully licensed and specially trained safety drivers, will be in the vehicles at all times, ready and able take over the driving if necessary.

DRIVEN will be organising a public demonstration of its self-driving vehicles on selected roads around Oxford in early 2018.   The next six months will see DRIVEN’s fleet of vehicles increase to four, with urban trials taking place around the streets of Oxford. By Q3 2018, there are plans that the fleet will be six-strong. The wide-area road testing of the fleet is due to start in late-summer 2018 across a range of environments including low-speed urban and higher speed long distance motorway driving.

The vehicles are fitted with a wide variety of technology, including Oxbotica’s Selenium autonomy software, lidar sensors, on board computers, and cameras.  Through its members at Telefonica and Nominet, the DRIVEN consortium is ensuring maximum security of this data to protect drivers and other vehicles from cyber security threats.

A key opportunity for the consortium and one of its members, global re/insurer XL Catlin, and TRL (the UK’s transport research laboratory) is to develop real-time risk assessment systems that enable a better understanding of how to improve overall system performance across a range of real-world conditions.   By 2019, the consortium plans to have developed a ‘Real-Time Risk Register’ that automatically processes a range of data from both the vehicle and external sources that surround it, for example traffic control systems.

Testing of data sharing with insurance systems is due to take place from January 2018 and will enable development of ‘Insurance in the Loop’, under which cover is granted automatically when the vehicle is in autonomous mode. The system has the potential to radically transform how insurance and autonomous vehicles will work together in connected cities.

Adrian Copland, DRIVEN Project Leader at XL Catlin, said: “Our role as insurers must be to help enable the development of the technologies that allow companies and society to move forward. We are delighted to be part of the DRIVEN consortium, working to understand the risks and develop the innovative insurance solutions which will be needed in the future.”

Russell Haworth, CEO, Nominet said: “The Driven project puts Nominet at the heart of developing the digital infrastructure necessary to support widespread adoption of autonomous vehicles.  To that end, we are addressing the issues of access, authentication, privacy, and security of digital systems.”

Dr Rob Buckingham, Director of RACE said: “RACE’s role is to enable comprehensive testing before the DRIVEN fleet takes to the public streets. Using a Government-owned facility is another indicator of the importance Government attaches to the testing of autonomous vehicles and leading the world in this rapidly developing field.”

Prof. Paul Newman, Director of Oxford Robotics Institute, Department of Engineering Science said: “Oxford University is delighted to be working with Oxbotica’s fleet of Driverless vehicles in the “Driven” programme. The company span out from us three years ago after our foundational work in autonomy and it is a virtuous circle to now be supporting the acceleration of the UK’s driverless cars program. We are driven by Driven. It is great to see those cars driving around the Oxford area as they prepare for the Oxford-London route.”

County Councillor Ian Hudspeth, Leader of Oxfordshire County Council said: “Oxfordshire County Council has a great deal invested in this ground-breaking work and is playing a major part in making it a success. As the organisation responsible for the county’s local roads we are engaging with technology providers to deploy sensors and equipment on our assets which will allow the cars to navigate the routes successfully.

“With our involvement in DRIVEN, Oxfordshire County Council is leading the move towards harnessing technology developed by local businesses to bring autonomous vehicles and Smart City benefits to our residents, whether that be combatting congestion or applying the data and learning from this project to our other services.

“The work being done now will ultimately shape the future of Oxfordshire and the UK. Decisions on infrastructure and future-proofing are happening now as we start to see autonomous vehicles move closer to being a day-to- day reality on our roads.”

Iwan Parry, Head of Connected and Autonomous Vehicles at TRL said: “TRL is excited to be engaged in such an innovative project as DRIVEN.  Working with partners, we will leverage our deep transport safety and technology expertise to deliver future approaches for autonomous vehicle insurance, enhanced operation of traffic management systems, and test protocols to enable a safe and successful demonstration of end-to-end autonomy in different road environments and conditions.”

Michael Hurwitz, TfL’s Director of Transport Innovation, said: “We work with tech companies around the world to support and learn from innovation that could improve transport across London. Autonomous vehicle technology has the potential to significantly change travel – that’s why we are working closely on this project to ensure the development of these types of vehicles is safe, environmentally-friendly and consistent with our focus on walking, cycling and green public transport.”

Oxbotica, the award-winning Oxford-based Artificial Intelligence company bringing driverless cars to the streets of the UK, announces today (24th April 2017) that it is leading a consortium of companies that will help to further cement the UK’s reputation as a world leader in the development of autonomous vehicles.

The DRIVEN consortium – which benefits from a £8.6 million grant awarded by Innovate UK – is an ambitious project that will see a fleet of fully autonomous vehicles being deployed in urban areas and on motorways, culminating in an end-to-end journey from London to Oxford. These 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. No connected and autonomous vehicle trial at this level of complexity and integration has ever been attempted anywhere in the world.

The consortium’s 30-month project plan, which is due to commence in April 2017, will shake-up both the transportation and insurance industries by seeking to remove fundamental barriers to real-world commercial deployment of autonomous vehicles. Key challenges the consortium will address include: communication and data sharing between connected vehicles; Connected and Autonomous Vehicles insurance modelling: risk profiling and the new cybersecurity challenges that this amount of data sharing will bring.

A major part of the consortium’s work will include the use of a fleet of six inter-communicating vehicles equipped with Selenium, Oxbotica’s cutting-edge vehicle manufacturer (OEM) agnostic software. As a platform, Selenium provides any vehicle it is applied to with an awareness of where it is, what surrounds it and, with that knowledge in hand, how it should move to complete a task.

A key challenge will be how to insure autonomous fleets of vehicles – and the consortium plans to develop a system that automatically takes into account data from the vehicle and external sources that surround it, for example, traffic control systems. The project will radically transform how insurance and autonomous vehicles will work together in connected cities.

The project will also 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.

Besides Oxbotica, other partners involved in the UK project include Oxford Robotics Institute, re/insurer XL Catlin, Nominet, Telefonica O2 UK, Transport Research Laboratory, the UK 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.”