The Self-Driving Vehicle of the Year Award 2024 goes to… The Ohmio Lift shuttle
Before picking up the flagship Vehicle of the Year prize at the Self-Driving Industry Awards 2024 on Friday, New Zealand-based autonomous vehicle manufacturer, Ohmio, offered public rides in its Lift shuttle in the car park of the Turner Contemporary art gallery in Kent.
Speaking on behalf of the judging panel, Cars of the Future editor, Neil Kennett, said: “At last year’s inaugural Awards, Mayor Rob Yates challenged us to get an automated vehicle to Margate.
“Better than that, we got the Vehicle of the Year winner – although they didn’t know that at the time – to give locals their first taste of full self-driving… and the BBC were there to film it.
“Presenting the award to Ian Pulford of Ohmio, Polly Billington, MP for East Thanet, set us a new challenge: To take guests from the train station on a tour of Margate seafront up to Walpole Bay, next year. So watch this space!”
Self-Driving on the BBC
Rather than an augmented version of an existing car or bus, the all-electric Ohmio Lift was designed to be self-driving from the very beginning. It doesn’t have a steering wheel but it can carry up to 20 passengers, with disabled access a priority.
Here in the UK, visitors to the NEC in Birmingham will soon be able to enjoy rides as part of the government-backed SCALE project.
More significantly, it will soon be operating on-road in Milton Keynes, as part of the StreetCAV project – supported by CCAV, Innovate UK and Zenzic – potentially providing a blueprint for nationwide deployment.
Self-driving winners
- Vehicle of the Year: Ohmio Lift
- Person of the Year: Jessica Uguccioni
- Consumer Champion: Meera Naran MBE
- Industry Legend: Prof. Philip Koopman
- Consumer Service: Waymo
- Aftermarket: Pro-Moto
- Design: TRL & RiDC
- Hardware: Scantinel
- Insurance: ABI
- Legal: Burges Salmon
- Research: Lacuna
- Sensing Software: Kognic
- Foundational Software: Fusion Processing
- Testing: Karsan
- Trust: Oxa
- V2X: FocalPoint
- Launchpad (Hardware): Oxford RF
- Launchpad (Software): Streetscope
The event was again hosted by Jim Carey, and the judging panel included Alex Bainbridge of Autoura, Corey Clothier of Aribo AV, Dr Nick Reed of Reed Mobility, and Dr Martin Dürr of Dromos. Check out this little intro film…
Of the other headline award winners, the judges said…
Person of the Year
“We are delighted to present our Person of the Year Award to the lead lawyer on the Law Commissions’ Automated Vehicles Review, Jessica Uguccioni. Having played a pivotal role in developing the UK’s world-leading regulatory framework, the Automated Vehicles Act, her new job at the government’s Centre for Connected and Autonomous Vehicles (CCAV) involves driving the UK’s deployment strategy. From designing new legal entities, to laying the groundwork for advanced testing – talk about walking the walk! In what last year was one of the hardest categories to judge, this year, Jessica was a clear winner.”
Consumer Champion
“We are delighted to present our Consumer Champion Award to a tireless campaigner for ‘safer drivers on safer roads’, Meera Naran MBE. Having lobbied for years for Dev’s Law – the mandatory fitting of Autonomous Emergency Braking (AEB) on all new vehicles, in honour of her son, Dev, who was killed in a preventable collision on a smart motorway – this year, Meera turned her attention to “the potential of self-driving to be safer”. From attending the launch of Partners for Automated Vehicle Education (PAVE) UK, to taking a ride in an Oxa self-driving car, to engaging in discussions on rollout and regulation, she is a much-needed, independent, powerful new voice in self-driving public safety.”
Industry Legend
“We are delighted to present our Industry Legend Award to an academic who has dedicated his career to dependable software system engineering: Professor Phil Koopman of Carnegie Mellon University. In his seminal 2022 book “How Safe Is Safe Enough? Measuring and Predicting Autonomous Vehicle Safety”, aimed at engineers, policy stakeholders and technology enthusiasts, he deconstructs the oft-quoted metric of being “at least as safe as a human driver”, and urges greater focus on what is “acceptably safe for real-world deployment”. Thank you Phil and we wish you a long and happy retirement.”
Consumer Service
“We are delighted to present our inaugural Consumer Service Award to Waymo. With services up and running in San Francisco, Phoenix and Los Angeles – and Atlanta and Austin coming soon – the company formerly known as the Google Self-Driving Car Project has completed over 20 million miles of autonomous driving rides, reportedly with 73% fewer injury-causing crashes than equivalent human drivers. Nominated by multiple entrants, the judges agreed that this global self-driving leader was indeed the most deserving recipient of this new headline award.”
#sdia24 #carsofthefuture … more to follow…
