UK Combines Driverless Pod, Vehicle Tests in Milton Keynes
Burney Simpson
Only 41 miles of road separate Coventry and Milton Keynes in the UK. But those miles may provide a route to 21st Century transportation.
The two midsize cities are contributing to one segment of the three-part test of connected and autonomous vehicles going on this year in the United Kingdom. Bristol and London are running the other two segments (See “London Tests Fully Autonomous, Electric-Powered Pod Transit”).
The trials in Milton Keynes and Coventry offer a mix of geographic areas and vehicle types.
There will be seven standard road vehicles along with 40 pods, otherwise known as low-speed autonomous transport systems. The pods will operate on sidewalks and other areas where they share space with pedestrians.
The road vehicles include three from Jaguar Land Rover, and two each from Ford and Tata Motors European Technology Center.
Plans call for the standard vehicles to eventually test Vehicle-to-Vehicle (V2V) and Vehicle-to-Infrastructure (V2I) communications technology.
The Milton Keynes/Coventry test is covered in the article “MK dons a collaborative approach” that runs in the latest issue of Smart Highways, a three-year-old pub covering intelligent transport systems in the UK. The author is Mark Ledsom, communications manager for Transport Systems Catapult.
The Milton Keynes/Coventry program is overseen by the UK Autodrive consortium. The three-year project has funding of 18.2 million pounds, or $25.8 million, and includes 16 member organizations.
The pods are built by Coventry-based RDM Group, and include autonomous systems from Oxbotica, the spin off from the Mobile Robotics Group at Oxford University.
As the tests are going on, UK Autodrive will organize and oversee three working groups, according to Ledsom.
The safety, data security and V2X communications group will develop recommendations for future deployments.
The urban issues group will look at the coming impact of driverless technology on cities in both a 10-year and a 25-year time frame. Mobility and congestion issues will be top of mind.
The third group will conduct surveys on autonomous and connected issues, in Coventry, Milton Keynes, the UK, and such world cities as Los Angeles and Shanghai.
Milton Keynes is home to Bletchley Park, where the Brits broke the Nazi’s Enigma codes in WWII. Scientists there created the ‘bombe’ electromechanical device that deciphered the German’s strategic plans, thus saving countless lives and shortening the war.
Transport Systems Catapult was established by the government agency Innovate UK to drive intelligent mobility for transporting goods and people.
Photo by Jaguar Land Rover.