Driverless and Connected Car ‘Living Lab’ and Testing Ground Launches in UK

Jennifer van der Kleut

The United Kingdom is moving full-speed ahead toward a society where driverless transportation is more common.

News outlets this week announced the launch of the UK Smart Mobility Living Lab in Greenwich, London. The lab will reportedly function as an “open innovation environment” where companies and researchers can design and develop self-driving and connected-car technology, test it in a realistic environment, and then work to integrate the finished product into the public, Highways Magazine explains.

Experts are saying Greenwich is the perfect place for the Living Lab to be located due to the many forms of transportation that locals use there, including roads, buses, underground, rail, the Docklands Light Railway, river buses and the Emirates Airline cable car.

“According to [the Transport Research Laboratory (TRL)], this provides an ideal environment to test the interaction and interoperability of connected and autonomous vehicles in a variety of different environments,” Highways Magazine reports.

“By providing a welcoming and real-life regulatory environment for testing, TRL can help accelerate the adoption of new technology and enable the UK to play a pivotal role in the development of this global market over the next five years,” said Rob Wallis, CEO of TRL, to Eureka Magazine UK.

IT Pro Portal reports that 9 million pounds in government funding was key in helping the Living Lab come to be. The project is one of many that received a portion of 100 million pounds in investment funds that the government pledged toward driverless transportation research in 2015.

UK elected officials are praising the launch of the Smart Mobility Living Lab.

Transport Minister Andrew Jones said to Highways Magazine, “Driverless cars will improve road safety and bring huge benefits to the economy. We have backed projects in Greenwich with [9 million pounds] of funding that are helping to turn it into a major centre for testing and demonstration. I am excited to see the UK Smart Mobility Living Lab progress, helping to keep the UK at the forefront of the motoring of the future.”