LONDON, Nov. 17 (Xinhua) -- Britain's largest trial of connected and autonomous vehicle technology has begun its public road tests, according to a statement released on Friday by the the UK Autodrive consortium.
The UK Autodrive consortium is made up of 15 leading organizations, including technology and automotive businesses, local authorities and academic institutions. Project partners Jaguar Land Rover, Ford and Tata Motors European Technical Centre (TMETC) have begun to collaboratively trial a number of connected car features on the streets of central Coventry.
The connected car trials are exploring the benefits of having cars that can communicate with each other and their surroundings. The technologies being trialed include connected traffic lights, emergency vehicle warnings and emergency braking alerts.
Meanwhile, Jaguar Land Rover and TMETC are also separately trialing their autonomous vehicle research technologies, which are being used to develop self-driving vehicle technology in a real-world setting, but with highly trained test operators supervising the cars at all times.
"The fundamental purpose of UK Autodrive is to get connected and autonomous vehicle technology out onto UK roads, so the start of trialing on the streets of Coventry is clearly a major landmark both for the project and for the UK as a whole," said Tim Armitage, Arup's UK Autodrive project director.
Further trials are scheduled to take place in Coventry and Milton Keynes early next year followed by a final series of open road demonstration events in both cities during the second half of 2018.
In addition to the on-road testing of connected and autonomous cars in Milton Keynes and Coventry, UK Autodrive is also trialing a fleet of up to 40 self-driving pavement-based "pod" vehicles in Milton Keynes, with both types of vehicle due to take part in the project's final technology demonstrations next year.
