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U.K. to Test Driverless Cars Between London and Oxford
A government-funded British consortium is readying a two-year test of driverless cars between London and Oxford that aims to establish completely autonomous travel linking the two cities in 2019.
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A government-funded British consortium is readying a two-year test of driverless cars between London and Oxford that aims to establish completely autonomous travel linking the two cities in 2019.
The cars will be tested in autonomous mode with a driver ready to take control if necessary.
The £7 million ($9 million) project will operate six vehicles over the 95 km (59 miles) between the cities, the Financial Times reports. The consortium is led by University of Oxford spinoff Oxbotica and Irish global insurer XL Catlin Group. The researchers will work with local governments and the British affiliate of Spanish telecommunications giant Telefonica SA.
The Oxbotica-developed test cars (pictured) will share information with each other about road hazards they encounter via a central processor dubbed Selenium. The network also will enable each vehicle to learn from the experiences of the others. Researchers also plan to use the test to study cybersecurity issues.
XL Catlin says the project will help it develop techniques to gauge a vehicle’s risks in real time and create more precise methods of figuring insurance rates based on actual risk exposure.
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