#Self-driving - Cars of the Future

Tesla has enjoyed success after success in recent years, but other VMs have been quietly making progress on self-driving.

Testing times for Tesla: Twitter, self-driving and Merc Level 3 success

With self-driving advertising issues, critical viral videos on Twitter, and Mercedes winning the race to SAE Level 3 in the US, these are testing times for Tesla.

In January, the respected Barron’s website noted that: “Tesla’s brand is the most valuable among the world’s auto makers, but it could be stronger. Tesla investors, along with Wall Street, are worried that CEO Elon Musk’s ownership of Twitter is hurting Tesla’s brand image.”

That was before the Dawn Project’s advert during the Super Bowl savaging Tesla’s Full Self-Driving and calling on the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) to ban it.

The Dawn Project’s advert criticises Tesla’s Full Self-Driving

True self-driving?

Just before Christmas, legislators in California had already clamped down on the terminology permissible in self-driving advertising and marketing.

The new law’s sponsor, Senator Lena Gonzalez, said: “[Senate Bill 1398] increases consumer safety by requiring dealers and manufacturers that sell new passenger vehicles equipped with a semiautonomous driving assistance feature… to give a clear description of the functions and limitations of those features.”

This has been coming for a while. Back in May last year we noted “It’s a shame, given everything Elon Musk has done for electric cars, that so many hyperbolic headlines are caused by its confusingly-named Full Self-Driving (FSD) package”

Then there was the Tesla which stopped abruptly in the Bay Bridge tunnel in San Francisco, reportedly with Full Self-Driving Beta active, which caused a multi-vehicle pileup.

Journalist Ken Klippenstein detailed the incident in The Intercept and helpfully posted the surveillance footage to Twitter, garnering 40m views.

I obtained surveillance footage of the self-driving Tesla that abruptly stopped on the Bay Bridge, resulting in an eight-vehicle crash that injured 9 people including a 2 yr old child just hours after Musk announced the self-driving feature.

Full story: https://t.co/LaEvX9TzxW pic.twitter.com/i75jSh2UpN
— Ken Klippenstein (@kenklippenstein) January 10, 2023

January 2023 Twitter video of “self-driving Tesla” on the Bay Bridge

More recently – and thanks to AV safety expert Philip Koopman on Linkedin for alerting us to this one – actor James Urbaniak tweeted video of a Tesla he’d borrowed confusing a train with a succession of trucks. This also went viral and currently has over 10m views.

Tesla thinks train is bunch of slow trucks pic.twitter.com/1cidVc58tC
— James Urbaniak (@JamesUrbaniak) February 19, 2023

Another Tesla Twitter video – from February 2023

“Just because an autonomous vehicle passes a test doesn’t mean it actually understood the situation,” said Koopman. “Does the vehicle know it is stopped for a grade crossing instead of a traffic light? Or does the driving software know what is going on and it is just a lame user interface? Hard to tell. But to the extent the user interface is there for the driver to ensure the vehicle is operating properly (a claim I have heard made) then this is problematic.”

Conditional self-driving

If that weren’t enough, in October we posited that “with EV no longer a USP, ADAS is the new battleground”. Well, if so, Mercedes struck a significant blow in January by announcing that its Drive Pilot had become the first SAE Level 3 system in a standard production vehicle to be authorised for use on US public freeways. Many had expected Tesla to get there first.

“Complying with the requirements of Nevada Chapter 482A for Autonomous Vehicles, Drive Pilot will allow the driver to hand over the dynamic driving task to the vehicle under certain conditions. Drive Pilot will be available in the US market as an option for model year 2024 Mercedes-Benz S-Class and EQS Sedan models, with the first cars delivered to customers in the second half of 2023,” read the Mercedes statement.

“Certification in Nevada marks the start of its international rollout and, with it, the dawning of a new era,” said Mercedes-Benz CTO Markus Schäfer.

Tesla has enjoyed success after success in recent years, tearing up the carmaker’s rulebook, but other VMs have been quietly making up ground. The new champ is about to be tested and the battle promises to be epic.

New statistics on UK public views on self-driving via RJRF-backed research by Reed Mobility

New self-driving stats show UK public opinion still polarised

Key questions surrounding exactly how self-driving vehicles should behave continue to divide UK public opinion. That’s according to early indications from the eagerly anticipated research by Reed Mobility, supported by the Rees Jeffreys Road Fund (RJRF).

Figures published in February show that 17% of survey respondents “strongly agreed” with the suggestion that self-driving buses should “drive at speeds that keep up with the traffic flow (within the speed limit), even if this increases risk to pedestrians”. On the other hand, 16% of participants “strongly disagreed”.

Reed Mobility – run by Prof Nick Reed, formerly Academy Director at the UK’s Transport Research Laboratory – was one of two winners of last year’s RJRF 150 Competition, splitting the generous £150,000 prize with Eloy. We’ve covered both extensively here on Cars of the Future, of course!

The RJRF is a grant making charity funded by a legacy from William Rees Jeffreys, remembered as ‘the British Ambassador for Good Roads’.

Self-driving comments

Chairman of the Trustees at the RJRF, David Tarrant, said, “We saw how the Reed Mobility project would enable citizens to have a stake in the governance framework for self-driving vehicle deployment, increasing the likelihood that self-driving vehicles genuinely deliver the safety, efficiency and accessibility benefits that are promised.”

Prof Nick Reed is one of the UK's leading experts on self-driving — Prof Nick Reed is one of the UK’s leading experts on self-driving

Reed Mobility founder, Nick Reed, added: “The support from the Rees Jeffreys Road Fund has enabled critical exploration into how self-driving vehicles should behave to align with the expectations of the communities into which they are deployed.

“These vehicles will potentially be sharing road space with motor vehicles and vulnerable road users and could dramatically improve road safety. However, in this safety critical context, the nature of self-driving vehicle operation behaviour is too important to be left solely in the hands of technology developers.

“This project will provide tools to enable manufacturers and regulators to engage meaningfully with the public over how the technology should operate. This means self-driving vehicle behaviour can be designed more appropriately and thereby ensure such vehicles are received more positively when they are deployed.”

More detailed findings are due to be published by Reed Mobility in June.

Remote driving rental car delivery trial in Milton Keynes is steppingstone to full self-driving

A solid bridge to self-driving: Fetch trials remote rental car delivery

In this Cars of the Future exclusive, we talk teleoperation as a steppingstone to self-driving with Sandip Gangakhedkar, CTO of Imperium Drive.

The London-based mobility startup made headlines last year when the BBC featured its Fetch rental car delivery trial in Milton Keynes. “It’s driverless but not autonomous,” explained CEO Koosha Kaveh. “There’s still a human involved, but they’ll be sitting in a control centre controlling the vehicle in the same way you’d control a drone.”

In October, Imperium reached the last round of the Zenzic CAM Scale-Up selection process, with Programme Director Mark Cracknell praising “The quality and range of the finalists – testament to the innovative solutions that will make future mobility cleaner, safer and more efficient”.

Human approach to self-driving

Sandip Gangakhedkar, CTO of Imperium Drive re self-driving — Sandip Gangakhedkar, CTO of Imperium Drive

SG: “We were formed in the summer of 2019 to build a new human-in-the-loop approach to autonomous driving. Fetch is our mobility service, which commercialises the technology we’ve built.

“Designed for urban door-to-door delivery, it’s based on remote driving. A trained remote driver, or operator, is responsible for driving the car on the road, based on live video feeds and sensor feedback sent over public infrastructure, like 4G and 5G networks.

“We have our own small fleet of cars and are running a small-scale commercial pilot within the city boundaries of Milton Keynes. A select group of users can have the cars delivered to their doorsteps driverlessly. That’s our main USP.

“Once the car is delivered, the customer can unlock it and drive it themselves, so at that point it ceases to be any kind of driverless experience. Once they’ve finished using it, the remote operator can re-take control and bring it back to base. It’s a new take on how autonomy can be developed sustainably and incrementally.

Fetch remotedriving rental car delivery trial in Milton Keynes — Fetch remote driving rental car delivery trial in Milton Keynes

“As well as the UK government’s code of practice for trialling automated vehicles, we’ve also taken on board additional guidelines and specifications (from BSI, CCAV, the Law Commission and others), around what it means to be safe, responsible and socially equitable.

“The socially equitable aspect is often overlooked. Fetch decouples car ownership from car access, so you don’t need to own a car to enjoy its benefits.

“As an industry, we’re still at an early stage in exploring topics like public acceptance and socio-economic impacts. If you use the Gartner Hype Cycle, a common way of viewing emerging technologies, then 2021 was probably peak ‘trough of disillusionment’, and now we’re entering the ‘slope of enlightenment’.

“Roll-out has to be gradual, because it has to be done responsibly. At the same time, our human-in-the-loop approach can be an important steppingstone to full self-driving.

“It allows a remote human to take the driving decisions, as opposed to an artificially intelligent entity. That’s key to responsibly scaling and improving the technology, slowly reducing the dependence on the remote driver.

“We are definitely looking at expanding to other cities as soon as the model has been validated.”

For further info, visit imperiumdrive.com / fetchcar.io

MIT self-driving emissions paper gets wide media attention, not all positive

MIT self-driving CO2 report sparks hyperbolic headlines and an intelligent rebuttal

In January, the respected Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) sparked media uproar with its article “Computers that power self-driving cars could be a huge driver of global carbon emissions”.

Indeed, its website boasted of the worldwide coverage, including “MIT study finds huge carbon cost to self-driving cars” in Dezeen, and “Self-driving cars could be a massive source of global carbon emissions” on the BBC.

MIT News self-driving CO2 media coverage, January 2023

Just one tiny issue. These fall firmly into the category of hyperbolic headlines.

Self-driving emissions prediction

The opening sentence of the report goes in hard: “In the future, the energy needed to run the powerful computers on board a global fleet of autonomous vehicles could generate as many greenhouse gas emissions as all the data centers in the world today.”

Shock news: self-driving cars will need computers… and computers need power! There must be more to it, right? Nope, not really.

The central point is: “that 1 billion autonomous vehicles, each driving for one hour per day with a computer consuming 840 watts, would consume enough energy to generate about the same amount of emissions as data centers currently do.”

Self-driving balance

There’s so much to take issue with, but thankfully – and here’s some great news – this time we don’t have to… because Brad Templeton, who worked on Google’s car team, has already done so, quite brilliantly, in Forbes.

“The study makes poor assumptions, and as such its conclusion is incorrect, but these sorts of studies are often latched onto by the opponents of new technologies due to their confirmation bias, and used as propaganda,” he says.

Spot on sir. For something with such positive potential, self-driving attracts an awful lot of vitriol.

For the record, the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) paper behind the headlines – “Data Centers on Wheels: Emissions From Computing Onboard Autonomous Vehicles” – is more tempered, including a commitment “to further analyze and potentially reduce the carbon footprint of AVs”.

Excellent. Maybe pop across to MIT’s own climate dept, where Sergey Paltsev, Deputy Director of the MIT Joint Program on the Science and Policy of Global Change, says: “Electric cars are actually much, much better in terms of the impact on the climate in comparison to internal combustion vehicles. And in time, that comparative advantage of electric cars is going to grow.”

February 2023: seven winners of commercialising UK self-driving competition to share £81m

UK government backs 7 self-driving projects with multi-million £ grants

Self-driving public transport announcements are like buses, it seems… you wait ages for one and then three come along at once!

In the last two weeks we’ve had the huge news that CAVForth autonomous buses have taken passengers for the first time, and the launch of the UK’s first all-electric autonomous bus service. Follow that!

Ok, today (1 February 2023), the government has confirmed the seven winners of its Commercialising Connected and Automated Mobility competition. They’ll each receive a healthy share of £81m in combined government and industry funding.

Self-driving winners

The successful self-driving passenger vehicle and freight projects are, in alphabetical order: CAVForth II, Hub2Hub, Multi-Area Connected Automated Mobility, Project Cambridge Connector, Project Harlander, Sunderland Advanced Mobility Shuttle, and V-CAL.

Business Secretary Grant Shapps on UK self-driving, Feb 2023

Business Secretary Grant Shapps said: “In just a few years’ time, the business of self-driving vehicles could add tens of billions to our economy and create tens of thousands of jobs across the UK. This is a massive opportunity to drive forward our priority to grow the economy, which we are determined to seize.

“The support we are providing today will help our transport and technology pioneers steal a march on the global competition, by turning their bright ideas into market-ready products sooner than anyone else.”

Transport Secretary Mark Harper on UK self-driving, Feb 2023

Transport Secretary Mark Harper added: “Self-driving vehicles including buses will positively transform people’s everyday lives – making it easier to get around, access vital services and improve regional connectivity.

“We’re supporting and investing in the safe rollout of this incredible technology to help maximise its full potential, while also creating skilled jobs and boosting growth in this important sector.”

The grants will be provided via the Centre for Connected and Autonomous Vehicles (CCAV), jointly run by the Department for Transport and Department for Business, Energy & Industrial Strategy.

Industry consortia will then match the £40m+ public grant to help British companies seize early opportunities to develop experimental projects into ready-for-market offerings. Each recipient is expected to demonstrate a sustainable commercial service by 2025, with the money allocated as follows…

Self-driving projects

CAVForth II by Fusion Processing, with project partners Stagecoach Group, Alexander Dennis, University of the West of England, and Edinburgh Napier University, will receive £10.4m to launch the world’s first full-sized self-driving bus service in Edinburgh.

Hub2Hub by HVS, with project partners Asda and Fusion Processing, will receive £13.2m to develop a new zero-emissions self-driving HGV for the UK market, delivering never-seen-before levels of efficiency and operational cost savings for logistics operators.

Multi-Area Connected Automated Mobility by Conigital, with project partners the National Exhibition Centre (NEC), Direct Line Group, Coventry City Council, Solihull Metropolitan Borough Council, University of Warwick, Coventry University, dRisk, IPG Automotive and West Midlands Combined Authority, will receive £15.2m to establish a remote driving control hub to oversee self-driving vehicles operating in Solihull and Coventry.

Project Cambridge Connector by the Greater Cambridge Partnership, including Cambridgeshire County Council, Cambridge City Council, South Cambridgeshire District Council and University of Cambridge, along with project partners dRisk, Stagecoach East, IPG Automotive UK, Conigital and Gamma Energy, will receive £17.4m to trial on-demand self-driving taxis across two sites – Cambridge University’s West Cambridge Campus and the Cambridge Biomedical Campus.

Project Harlander by Belfast Harbour, with partners to be confirmed but expected to be Horiba MIRA, Angoka, BT, and REE Automotive UK, will receive £11m to deploy a self-driving shuttle service around Belfast Harbour. It will be Northern Ireland’s first operationally ready, scalable, and commercially viable deployment of a fully automated shuttle service on mixed-use public roads.

Sunderland Advanced Mobility Shuttle by the City of Sunderland Council, with partners Stagecoach North East, Angoka, Aurrigo (Richmond Design and Marketing), Newcastle University, Swansea University, and BAI Communications, will receive £6m to build and trial a self-driving shuttle service to serve two high-volume destinations – the University of Sunderland and Sunderland Royal Hospital.

V-CAL by the North East Automotive Alliance, with partners Vantec, Nissan Motor Manufacturing UK (NMUK), StreetDrone, Nokia, Newcastle University, Angoka, and Womble Bond Dickinson (UK), will receive £8m to rollout self-driving and remotely piloted HGVs between the Vantec and Nissan sites in Sunderland, including both public and private land.

Self-driving studies

A further £600,000 is also being awarded for feasibility studies to explore how self-driving technology could improve public transport in four parts of the UK currently suffering from congestion.

It includes £142,000 for “Dedicated, Driverless” spaces on the route between Hemel Hempstead and Stansted Airport in Hertfordshire and Essex, £92,000 for an Autonomous Rapid Transit corridor in eastern Cambridge, £151,000 for automated platooning shuttle vehicles using tyre-on-tarmac technology in Birmingham and Solihull, and £200,000 for the Advanced Very Rapid Transit (AVRT) concept in Milton Keynes.

Innovate UK Executive Director for Net Zero, Mike Biddle, said: “The Connected and Automated Mobility (CAM) sector is of crucial importance to the UK, with the potential to deliver safer, cleaner and more efficient transport systems across a wide range of settings.

“This latest, multi-year round of government’s Commercialising CAM funds builds on the success of previous collaborative R&D programmes, stimulating innovation to ensure the UK is at the forefront of the transition towards the commercialisation of self-driving services.”

For context, the government press release on the new funding stated: “Self-driving vehicles could revolutionise public transport and passenger travel, especially for those who don’t drive, better connect rural communities and reduce road collisions caused by human error.

“Forecasts predict that by 2035, 40% of new UK car sales will have self-driving capabilities, with a total market value for connected and automated mobility worth £41.7 billion to the UK. This could create nearly 40,000 skilled jobs in connected and automated vehicle (CAV) technology.

“The government is also committed to introducing legislation that will enable the safe and timely rollout of self-driving vehicles on UK roads. Under a proposed ‘safety ambition’ for self-driving vehicles to be equivalent in safety to a competent and careful human driver, vehicles will need to meet certain standards to be allowed to ‘self-drive’ on the roads throughout the lifetime of the vehicle. Organisations overseeing self-driving vehicles could face sanctions if standards are not maintained.”

Momentous stuff indeed and rest assured Cars of the Future will keep you updated on their progress.

Another UK self-driving success as First Bus launches EV-powered service near Didcot in Oxfordshire

MP Holden at landmark launch of UK’s 1st self-driving EV bus service

Have you heard the one about momentous UK self-driving public transport announcements being like buses? You wait for ages, then two come along at once!

Three days after the news that CAVForth is taking passengers in Scotland, came another huge win for Department for Transport’s Centre for Connected and Autonomous Vehicles (CCAV) and Fusion Processing: the launch of the UK’s first all-electric autonomous bus service.

The date was 23 January, the location was Milton Park (near Didcot and Abingdon), and this time plaudits went to consortium lead First Bus, Oxfordshire County Council, the University of the West of England, and Zipabout.

Minister for self-driving buses

Better still, Richard Holden MP, Parliamentary Under Secretary of State with responsibility for roads and local transport, was in attendance.

Richard Holden MP attended the landmark self-driving EV launch

MP for North West Durham since 2019, Holden was previously a special adviser to former Secretary of State for Transport, Chris Grayling.

“It’s thrilling to see our £3m investment help British firms and engineers pioneer new exciting ideas to achieve our vision of a truly efficient and sustainable transport network,” he said. “The launch of the UK’s first autonomous, zero-emission bus today is yet another key step towards achieving Net Zero, creating high-wage, high-skilled new jobs and opportunities, while truly levelling up transport across the country.”

The culmination of a five-year project, the revolutionary new service is part of the Mi-Link green travel programme being operated by First Bus.

Self-driving partners

Janette Bell, Managing Director at First Bus, said: “The launch of the UK’s first zero emission autonomous vehicle is a stellar example of how technology can support modal shift with wide partnership working between Central and Local Government, operators and local business. First Bus serves millions of customers in the UK, and we know that many take the bus because they care about reducing their carbon footprint. We cannot wait to hear some feedback on the new buses.”

Innovate UK Executive Director for Net Zero, Mike Biddle, added: “The connected and automated mobility sector is of crucial importance to the UK, with the potential to deliver safer, cleaner and more efficient transport systems across a wider range of settings. This multi-connected and autonomous vehicles project, part of a wider package of government R&D funding, will deliver the research required to support the future of multi-modal passenger carrying services.”

In a video interview with The Independent, Jim Hutchinson, CEO at Fusion Processing, explained: “It does have a safety driver on board at all times, for regulatory purposes, but it can drive itself in all conditions. It’s SAE level4, so that means within a defined area. This is a great showcase for an on-demand route.”

Self-driving on film

Fusion Processing CEO Jim Hutchinson in The Independent

If you haven’t already read it, we highly recommend our 2021 interview with Hutchinson, in which he covers ADAS, cyclist detection and autonomous vehicle safety… and promises to put the UK on the global driverless map.

Between Didcot and CAVForth, January 2023 is making a strong case for the UK’s best self-driving month ever!

Landmark moment for UK self-driving as CAVForth bus takes passengers

UK self-driving public transport breakthrough as CAVForth bus takes passengers for first time

On 20 January, Fife Today brought us the self-driving news we’ve been waiting for since we interviewed Fusion Processing CEO Jim Hutchinson way back in April 2021…

Following the first full-sized autonomous bus trial on UK public roads last spring, CAVForth has officially taken passengers for the first time!

Part funded by the Centre for Connected and Autonomous Vehicles (CCAV), it will be the UK’s first registered service to use full-sized single-decker self-driving buses.

A fleet of five such vehicles will cover the 14-mile route from Ferrytoll Park and Ride in Fife to the Edinburgh Park Transport Interchange, a journey which takes them over the iconic Forth Road Bridge.

Self-driving comment

Louise Simpson, CAVForth lead project manager for Stagecoach, said: “We’re really excited to have reached this major milestone in our project plan. Until now, only project team members had been able to trial the autonomous service.”

One of the lucky passengers, Fleur Dijkman, told the BBC: “I wasn’t worried at all. You wouldn’t know the difference between this and a normal bus.”

Ivan McKee, business minister for the Scottish government, added: “This is another hugely significant step forward for the CAVForth project. It brings us closer to these autonomous vehicles entering service.”

Self-driving scepticism on ITV’s Loose Women

Self-driving baby buggy gets absolute no from ITV’s Loose Women

Following its appearance at CES 2023, the self-driving Ella “smart stroller” has suffered a hard knockback from Frankie Bridge on ITV’s Loose Women.

The EV-powered pushchair, by Canadian company Glüxkind Technologies, had already been named a “CES Innovation Awards Honoree” when it was profiled on the popular UK lunchtime show in early January.

Self-driving baby buggy on Loose Women

“We all know about driverless cars, but have you heard about the driverless pram?” asked host Ruth Langsford. “It can go up to 5mph and will automatically stop if it goes further than arm’s reach.”

Frankie Bridge responded: “For me, that’s an absolute no. I still don’t trust cars that drive themselves.”

Self-driving stroller

Glüxkind clarifies that the “intelligent hands free strolling” only kicks in when there’s no child in the buggy, so that “parents and caregivers alike can enjoy effortless walks regardless of terrain; uphill, downhill, and even when fully loaded with groceries.”

“The development has been driven by our own experience as new parents,” said Co-founder Anne Hunger. “Supporting the next generations of parents with an incredible product is what motivates us every day.”

However well-intentioned, it seems the Ella faces a similarly formidable public acceptance challenge to roadgoing self-driving vehicles.

For further info visit gluxkind.com

Self-driving headline news from CES 2023

CES 2023: Self-driving advances overshadowed by Terminator hero

As has become customary at this time of year, here’s our Cars of the Future review of notable self-driving developments at CES, “the most influential tech event in the world”.

First, it would be remiss not to point out that self-driving impressively made headlines by not stealing the show! For instance, Cleantechnica ran with the headline: “CES 2023 Shies Away From Autonomous Driving Technology”.

Self-driving premiere

That’s maybe a bit harsh. For starters, ZF gave a world premiere to its next generation Level 4 autonomous shuttle, and announced an important new partnership with Beep.

ZF self-driving shuttle announced at CES 2023

Integrated into ZF’s autonomous driving system is the Virtual Driver software stack, developed in partnership with Oxfordshire-based Oxbotica. It consists of two major parts, the performance path and the safety path. The safety path monitors situations and defines ‘virtual guardrails’, while the performance path enables smooth driving.

“ZF delivers innovative technologies that contribute to sustainable mobility and help decarbonize the world,” said Dr. Holger Klein, CEO of ZF Group. “Today, we have everything to support our customers with holistic vehicle systems based on advanced high-performance controllers, intelligent sensors, smart actuators, connectivity and cloud solutions, and cutting-edge software and functions.”

The agreement with Beep includes plans for “several thousand” Level 4 shuttles in the US. Joe Moye, CEO of Beep, added: “This vehicle will help expand use cases and meet growing customer demand as we continue to pursue our vision of extending mobility equity and reducing carbon emissions with safe, efficient shared autonomous transportation.”

Self-driving AI

Then there was Korean company AIMMO’s announcement of “the world’s first AI-powered Autonomous Driving Data-as-a-Service” – ADaaS – designed “to overcome the industry-wide problem of excessive data collection that has constrained the progression and commercialisation of AV technologies”.

AIMMO AI-powered Autonomous Driving Data-as-a-Service (ADaaS) for self-driving

“Over the years, we have seen a huge amount of anticipation around when we will see autonomous vehicles commercialised, but with standards and regulations ever-changing across the world, it is an extremely complex market to navigate,” said AIMMO CEO SeungTaek Oh. ”We believe that the arrival of AIMMO ADaaS is a game-changer for many companies operating in this space.”

There was the small matter of Honda and Sony teaming up to launch a whole new brand, Afeela. It promises “the car of tomorrow”, with first deliveries scheduled for 2026.

Self-driving tech

Plastic Omnium announced the creation of a new division, OP’n Soft, focused on “mobility solutions that are more electric, more connected, more autonomous and more shared”. There’s probably an acronym for that.

“OP’n Soft will enable Plastic Omnium to offer its customers a unique range of integrated solutions and services, such as merging radar data processing software with lighting technologies,” said CEO Laurent Favre.

Plastic O also showcased a new “smart bumper” featuring embedded antennas to deliver “unequaled sensing faculties”, and announced a partnership with startup Greenerwave “to transform body panels into 4D imaging radar to give autonomous cars supervision”.

Another startup, Exwayz, unveiled SLAM – new generation software offering self-localization accurate to 2cm “to simplify and accelerate 3D LiDAR integration into autonomous systems”.

Exwayz SLAM self-localization for self-driving announced at CES 2023

“We are proud to introduce Exwayz SLAM, aimed at saving years in hard software development to autonomous system manufacturers,” said CEO Hassan Bouchiba. “The reality is that autonomy can only happen with robust, accurate, reliable and truly real-time algorithms, which are the critical lacking elements in currently available solutions.”

Terminator star

Perhaps understandably, these advances were somewhat overshadowed by Terminator star Arnold Schwarzenegger joining BMW CEO Oliver Zipse on-stage to unveil the eye-catching BMW i Vision Dee colour-changing car.

The Dee Movie starring Arnold Schwarzenegger on Youtube

When can we expect autonomous vehicles – AVs – in the capital?

Will London be the first UK AV city?

Automated vehicles (AVs) are the emerging superstars of 21st century mobility, from uber-luxurious driverless cars, to more ubiquitous robotaxis and delivery vans.

Self-driving tourism company, Autoura, provides a handy AV rollout tracker, with China having by far the most entries. In the US, robotaxis are already charging for rides in San Francisco and Phoenix.

The UK also pushed on this year. Oxbotica conducted a successful on-road test of its skateboard-like zero-occupancy EV, while CAVForth ran a single-decker autonomous bus in a landmark trial in Scotland. Both made global headlines.

MPs on AVs

As David Wong, senior technology and innovation manager at The Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders (SMMT), told The Transport Select Committee in October: “The next step is to remove the safety driver altogether, whether the safety driver is inside the vehicle or remote.”

We face unique challenges, as Inma Martinez, author of The Future of the Automotive Industry, noted: “In the UK you have a lot of 60mph rural roads where you can barely see what’s coming. Then you have London, which is like no other city. It is a costly challenge to test smart road infrastructure without creating congestion.”

Quite so, but existing systems are astronomically expensive. Transport for London (TfL) came close to being bankrupt earlier this year, rescued by last-minute government funding. Paris subsidises its system to the tune of around €8bn a year.

At Autonomy’s recent London City Summit, the stat of the day was the TfL target that, by 2041, 80% of journeys in the capital should be either by public transport or active travel.

A panel moderated by Professor Nick Reed, chief road safety adviser at National Highways, discussed the potential role of AVs, with Jakob Kammerer, senior product manager at Bosch, commenting: “Our trials show that people are curious about self-driving. Transparency always helps. We explain what we are doing and why – to make improved mobility for everyone. Once they see that a product is good and solves a problem, they will adopt it very quickly.”

Margarethe Theseira, of Bath-based engineering consultancy, Buro Happold, predicted that “the real benefits will come when everything is fully automated”, but worried that “it will be a rich person’s toy”.

Designer Marco Mazzotta, of Heatherwick Studio, mused on how cities might evolve architecturally with widespread AV adoption. He pointed to the huge amount of parking space that could be freed up, asking: “What will we use the space for? Is it going to be public or private?”

Other AVs

A later panel looked at the rapid rise of e-scooter hire and, eventually, these could also be self-driving. Years ago, Paul Priestman, famous for designing Virgin’s Pendolino train, described an e-scooter with a “take me home button”.

Yet there’s growing recognition that, when it comes to cars, the S in SEA (shared, electric and autonomous) is the most problematic.

Who wouldn’t want to own the incredible Audi Grandsphere concept car, advertised on telly during the World Cup? It has a “hands-off” mode, with a steering wheel which folds away, and aims to “redefine high class travelling”. It’s unapologetically exclusive.

Conversely, another Priestman-linked project, Dromos, offers a different mass transit solution, using small AVs running on-demand on dedicated routes.

“Users want a ride quality comparable to that of a taxi, but at the price of a bus ticket,” said co-founder Dr Martin Dürr. “Privacy is an important topic, along with convenience and cleanliness.

“Pilots have shown that passengers have very little, if any, desire to share a driverless vehicle with a stranger. Actually, people are willing to pay a premium not to share. We provide capacity at a much better cost per mile.

“Following excellent discussions with the Centre for Connected and Autonomous Vehicles (CCAV), we have moved a lot of our attention and value chain to the UK.

“We have proposed a solution for the Cambridgeshire & Peterborough Combined Authority and are in discussion with Manchester, The Ministry for Transport in Scotland and others.”

Please note: a version of this article was first published by the Institute of the Motor Industry’s MotorPro magazine.