Smart Mobility Living Lab (SMLL), a UK connected urban testbed for future transport and mobility solutions, has announced its first test routes for self-driving cars in London.
Smart Mobility Living Lab (SMLL) will conduct real-world trials in the Royal Borough of Greenwich and Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park in Stratford.
SMLL says that the test routes are not only a first for London, but also a UK industry first in offering transport innovators the ability to design their own test routes on public roads in a ‘real-world’ urban environment.
Advanced roadside monitoring infrastructure will be installed to increase safety and provide information on how vehicles behave in real world situations.
According to SMLL’s own research study of the connected and autonomous vehicle (CAV) market, 84% of industry decision-makers agree that the UK needs its own testing facilities. With 67% of them also agreeing that CAVS will make roads safer, the ability to test vehicles in a scalable, everyday environment is essential to developing and rolling out driverless cars.
The sites incorporate 24 km of existing roads remotely monitored by live CCTV, roadside sensors for collecting and sharing data both from the vehicle systems being tested and from communications between the vehicle to the infrastructure.
SMLL says that the routes, incorporate a wide range of road and junction layouts, crossings, bus and cycle facilities to test vehicle performance in real world conditions.
Test features are available at different levels of complexity for self-driving cars and other vehicles, enabling SMLL customers to progress in a safe fashion from digital twin simulation to increasingly complex real-world testing.
Source: Smart Highways
