Skip to main content

UK university project paves the way for smarter cities and autonomous cars

The new i-Motors project, led by academics from the University of Nottingham’s Geospatial Institute and Human Factors Research Group and digital technology company Control F1, aims to build a mobile platform that allows vehicles of different manufacturers and origins to transfer and store data. The project, which has received a US$1.9 million award from the UK’s innovation agency Innovate UK sets out to establish a set of universal standards on how vehicles communicate with each other, and with other ma
February 1, 2016 Read time: 2 mins
The new i-Motors project, led by academics from the University of Nottingham’s Geospatial Institute and Human Factors Research Group and digital technology company Control F1, aims to build a mobile platform that allows vehicles of different manufacturers and origins to transfer and store data.

The project, which has received a US$1.9 million award from the UK’s innovation agency Innovate UK sets out to establish a set of universal standards on how vehicles communicate with each other, and with other machines.

The i-Motors team will use patented technology, which it says allows data to be collected and analysed at greater speeds than ever before.

Capitalising on the experience of traffic management experts InfoHub, these data can then be combined with other data sources such as weather reports, event data and traffic feeds, easing congestion and increasing safety through real time updates and route planning.

In addition, the platform will allow vehicles to report errors, which can be automatically crosschecked against similar reports to diagnose the problem and reduce the chance of a breakdown.

The project will adopt a human-centred approach, aiming to understand the complex issues involved in the provision of new information and services for the ‘drivers’ of future vehicles.

Tapping into Head Communications’ expertise, i-Motors will also address the issue of limited connectivity by developing sensors capable of transmitting data to the cloud in real time. Through installing these sensors, known as Beyond Line of Sight (BLOS), vehicles can remain connected with sub-metre precision, even when out of internet and GPS range.

The project will make use of Huduma’s experience working on telecoms solutions on a global scale to make i-Motors sustainable and commercially successful in the long term.

i-Motors already has the backing of Nottingham, Coventry and Sheffield City Councils, where the new technology will first be piloted, and a letter of support from the Transport Systems and Satellite Applications Catapult, and fleet management experts Isotrak.

The project will make use of live vehicle data provided by Ford, which has an ongoing relationship with the University of Nottingham.

Related Content

  • US regulator ‘paves the way for Google’s self-driving car’
    February 11, 2016
    A letter to Google, the US federal transport regulator, National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), appears to pave the way for self-driving cars, but adds the proviso that the rule-making could take some time. Google had requested clarification of a number of provisions in the Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standards (FMVSSs) as they apply to Google’s described design for self-driving vehicles (SDVs). “If no human occupant of the vehicle can actually drive the vehicle, it is more reasonable
  • Wireless - the future of vehicle detection
    July 23, 2012
    Peter Cattell of Clearview Traffic analyses different wireless communications methods and explains how these are changing the face of vehicle detection. With the continued expansion of traffic data collection solutions, providing a robust, reliable, scalable and secure method of collecting information becomes increasingly important. Over many years, various mobile wireless technologies have been utilised to make the remote collection of data a reality but recent developments are changing the way that this w
  • City Tech to provide CTA occupancy insights 
    March 18, 2021
    Microsoft Azure tool will support data creation and analytics activities
  • GridMatrix goes back to the future in New York City
    September 25, 2023
    Legacy traffic management infrastructure doesn’t have to be a marker of the past: software upgrades can bring it into the present in a cost-effective and timely way, says Gordon Feller