The GATEway project (London - United Kingdom)
The GATEway project – acronym for Greenwich Automated Transport Environment – is a research initiative that is taking place in the UK Smart Mobility Lab (from TRL) in Greenwich with the purpose of testing different uses for automated driverless vehicles to adequately position them in the urban environment, taking into account all technical, legal, and societal factors involved. The project is expected to drive job creation and investment in this field of technology.
Citizens were able to get involved in the testing procedures of the prototype shuttles with capacity for 4 people that travel at around 16 km/h and have no steering wheel or brakes, traveling from one specific point to the next. The aim is to assess and understand people’s perceptions and interactions with the driverless pods, to evaluate public acceptance of the solution. The other trials included last-mile automated deliveries and autonomous valet parking. As a result of this test phase an extensive report has been written on the topic of “driver responses to encountering automated vehicles in an urban environment”: http://gateway-project.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2017/02/Driver-responses-to-encountering-automated-vehicles-in-an-urban-environment-1.pdf.
The automated vehicles use various sensors to detect people, animals or any other kind of obstacles, and a complex autonomy software, which is a vehicle-agnostic, sensor-agnostic autonomy solution for a wide range of platforms. Onboard sensors (cameras and lasers) are used by the vehicle to locate itself in its map and plan a safe trajectory to its goal, avoiding all possible obstacles.
Sources:
https://gateway-project.org.uk/
http://smartcityhub.com/mobility/tthe-gateway-project-testing-driverless-vehicles-in-london/
Improved Intelligent Transport Systems.
Official objectives of the project, as stated in the website:
“- Demonstrate: the safe and efficient integration of sophisticated automated transport systems into complex real world smart city environments;
- Understand: the technical, cultural, societal and legal challenges and barriers to adoption surrounding automated vehicles;
- Inspire: industry, public bodies and the wider public to engage with autonomous transport technology;
- Generate: Valuable, exploitable knowledge of the systems required for the effective validation, deployment, management and integration of automated transport within a smart city environment;
- Create: a validated test bed in the heart of London for the evaluation of next generation automated transport systems, including the detailed testing protocols and benchmark data for independent verification of automated system;
- Position: UK PLC at the forefront of the global connected and autonomous vehicle marketplace, encouraging inward investment and job creation.”
A consortium of companies and academic institutions led by TRL (Transport Research Laboratory of the UK), and supported by Innovate UK and the Centre for Connected & Autonomous Vehicles (governmental entities).