Milton Keynes City Council and its partners have successfully secured almost £2m in grant funding to deliver new state of the art self-driving shuttle services into the city.
The StreetCAV project (CAV standing for ‘connected and autonomous vehicles’ which vary from one-seaters up to vehicles similar in size to a bus) will install the connectivity and other infrastructure necessary for self-driving shuttles that seat multiple passengers, as well as robotic and drone-based services to operate safely. The City Council has teamed up with Smart City Consultancy and other partners to deliver the scheme, which will be used to trial the technology before consideration is given to rolling it out across the country.
The funding secured in Milton Keynes comes from a wider pot of £18.5 million in government funding being made available to projects that will strengthen the UK’s automated supply chain.
Passengers will be able to use the self-driving shuttles from as early as October 2024. More details including expected routes will be published in the coming months.
“Milton Keynes really is the home of innovation and we’re committed to exploring new forms of sustainable transport so local people can benefit, as well as helping other cities around the world learn how to be greener places to live and work. Demand-responsive, autonomous vehicles can help to reduce congestion, and create a cleaner environment so it’s a really exciting trial to lead on. Additionally, attracting global organisations to test these ideas in Milton Keynes also provides potential for new high-tech, high-skill jobs.”
"At Smart City Consultancy, we are passionate about delivering new innovations that offer opportunities to drive adoption and up-take of new autonomous services, creating jobs and delivering highly differentiated experiences for the travelling public – the StreetCAV project is designed to do just that, and our job is to ensure not only the project delivers, but that the things we achieve live on into the future, not only in Milton Keynes, but for the benefit of the UK at large…”
Editors notes
StreetCAV is one of 13 projects, involving 43 companies, that will improve the safety and security of self-driving vehicles, by filling specific technology gaps, improving performance, reliability and scale-up opportunities in the UK and globally. The grants, awarded as part of the Centre for Connected and Autonomous Vehicles (CCAV) Commercialising Connected and Automated Mobility: Supply Chain competition, will help British companies seize early opportunities to develop self-driving technologies, products and services ready for the connected and automated mobility market and form part of the Centre for Connected and Autonomous Vehicles Connected and Automated Mobility programme, complementing an £81 million investment for CAM technology.
The Commercialising CAM programme is funded by the Centre for Connected and Automated Vehicles, a joint unit between the Department for Business and Trade (DBT) and the Department for Transport (DfT) and delivered in partnership with Innovate UK and Zenzic.
The CCAM Supply Chain competition was launched in October 2022 to support the delivery of early commercialisable Connected and Autonomous Mobility technologies, products and services and is part of the Government’s vision for self-driving vehicles.