EU Backed Autonomous City Shuttle Project Launched

An European Union funded autonomous driving pilot will run across three cities to trial driverless shuttles in inner city environments.

The Living Lab for Autonomous Electric Vehicles with use shuttles built by UK head quartered Aurrigo International and its Auto-Shuttle vehicles will run with a safety driver on board, while developing towards a goal of using remote supervisor monitoring. The project will be running across the cities of Prague, Brno and Milton Keynes and is conducted in collaboration with industry, operators, cities and University College London as the project leader.

The project aims to build trust in autonomous driving, through a robust transnational safety framework as well as promoting user acceptance and trust in close collaboration with citizens, cities, operators, academia, industry and policy makers. By working with multiple cities in more than one country, the participants are gaining experience from different types of street layouts, road conditions and public attitudes to autonomy. This phase of the project will also examine integration with trip planning applications used in those cities.

The Aurrigo technology suite on the Auto-Shuttle brings together LiDAR and cameras with its own in-house developed software to give the Auto-Shuttle a constant, 3D, all-weather picture of its surroundings to enhance safety and efficiency. CEO David Keene said: “Although we work all over the world, this is the first Auto-Shuttle deployment in mainland Europe for Aurrigo, and we are delighted to be working with such a prestigious group of partners to move towards this important step in autonomous public transport. The medieval, cobbled streets of Prague built before cars or buses were dreamt of are in stark contrast to the modern roads of Milton Keynes, which shows the importance of testing in multiple cities.”

— Paul Myles is a seasoned automotive journalist based in Europe. Follow him on Twitter @Paulmyles_  and Threads