Later this year, a fleet of driverless vehicles will take to the streets of the London borough of Greenwich. An all-British endeavour, the project is a joint venture between HeathrowEnterprises, Oxbotica and Westfield Sportscars. The vehiclesthemselves will be developed from an existing fleet of automated pods used for short journeys across Heathrow Airport, which were first broughtinto operation almost five years ago.
The fully-automated pods, known asUltra Pods, have been used at Heathrow Airport for almost five years,carrying some 1.5 million passengers across the facility andeliminating the need for 70,000 bus journeys every year. The electric shuttles have had a big impact on the airport's carbon footprint, eliminatingaround 100 tonnes (110 tons) of annual CO2 emissions.
Unlike those vehicles, the pods that will hit the streets of London won't require tracks toguide them, instead moving along normal roads with other traffic.Their design and manufacture will be handled by London-basedWestfield Sportscars, which will also conduct testing prior to thelaunch of the project. Heathrow Enterprises will work together withOxbotica on software, mapping, and the all-important perception andtrajectory planning systems.
A cloud-based managementsystem will also be put in place, with the goal of allowing theshuttles to operate in harmony, as part of synchronized,fully-automated system. Users will be able to book pods through asmartphone app.
The trial is set to kick offthis summer, forming part of the GATEway project, the key goal ofwhich is to investigate public acceptance of automated shuttleservices. The wider project will also include trials of automated valet parking and delivery services.
A similar vehicle, the EZ10, is expected to hit the roads of Singapore and California later this year.
Source: Heathrow Enterprises
