Skip to main content

Registration opens for UK’s first public driverless vehicle trials

Members of the public can now register to take part in the UK’s first public driverless vehicle trials, due to take place later this year. The trials, which will take place in the Royal Borough of Greenwich, are part of the GATEway (Greenwich Automated Transport Environment) project – a US$11.5 million (£8million) research project to investigate the use, perception and acceptance of autonomous vehicles in the UK. Taking place in the UK Smart Mobility Living Lab @ Greenwich and led by the UK’s Transport
May 13, 2016 Read time: 2 mins
Members of the public can now register to take part in the UK’s first public driverless vehicle trials, due to take place later this year. The trials, which will take place in the Royal Borough of Greenwich, are part of the GATEway (Greenwich Automated Transport Environment) project – a US$11.5 million (£8million) research project to investigate the use, perception and acceptance of autonomous vehicles in the UK.

Taking place in the UK Smart Mobility Living Lab @ Greenwich and led by the UK’s Transport Research Laboratory (491 TRL), the trials will see fully electric automated vehicles navigating their way around Greenwich. Members of the public can now register for their chance to be involved in the trials, which seek to understand how a range of different user groups feel about the use of fully automated vehicles. Those chosen to be part of the trials will be given the chance to ride in a driverless vehicle and asked to provide their views about the experience. Some participants may also be invited to share their views in interviews before and after using a vehicle.

In addition to physical vehicle trials, members of the public can also register to take part in workshops to help envision the future of driverless vehicles. The workshops, which will take place from June 2016, seek to better understand people’s attitudes towards the use of automated vehicles and their operation in cities. Participants will be encouraged to discuss and debate the topic as well as participate in creative activities with designers and researchers from GATEway partner, the Royal College of Art.

Those with experience or knowledge of Greenwich are also encouraged to share their views on driverless vehicles via a web-based sentiment mapping tool. The site, developed and managed by GATEway partner Commonplace, provides members of the public with a chance to provide feedback on how driverless vehicles might impact life in and around Greenwich. Contributors are able to revisit the site as many times as they like, adding as many comments as they wish, whenever they choose throughout the duration of the project.

Related Content

  • July 20, 2015
    UK to lead the way in testing driverless cars
    The UK government has launched a US$30 million competitive fund for collaborative research and development into driverless vehicles, along with a code of practice for testing. The measures, announced by Business Secretary Sajid Javid and Transport Minister Andrew Jones, will put the UK at the forefront of the intelligent mobility market, expected to be worth US£1.4 trillion by 2025. The government wants bidders to put forward proposals in areas such as safety, reliability, how vehicles can communicat
  • October 1, 2018
    SRP to accelerate development of future transport systems in UK
    Avia, BP, Hastings Direct and Honda R&D have been named as founding members of a shared research programme (SRP) to test and develop transport technologies in the UK. The SRP is investing in a three-year year project at the Smart Mobility Living Lab: London (SMLL) led by the Transport Research Laboratory and DG Cities – the commercial arm of Digital Greenwich. SMLL, a set of routes in and around the Royal Borough of Greenwich and the Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park (site of the London 2012 Olympics), is
  • January 4, 2017
    UK project demonstrates vehicle remote operation and autonomy for disabled drivers
    The UK’s first demonstration of a remotely-operated autonomous vehicle service for people with reduced mobility has been successfully completed as part of the GATEway project (Greenwich Automated Transport Environment), led by TRL. Taking place at the InterContinental Hotel in the Royal Borough of Greenwich and completed using an autonomous-enabled Toyota Prius, the demonstration marked the end of a fortnight of testing in which GATEway partners Gobotix and O2 were able to successfully demonstrate remote
  • August 23, 2017
    Four out of five people ‘think autonomous vehicles are a good idea’
    A new report from Transport Research Laboratory (TRL) and Royal Holloway, University of London, has revealed that four out of five of the people surveyed (81 per cent) are open to the idea of autonomous vehicles (AVs) on the UK’s roads. The ‘Attitudes to AVs’ report shows that many people feel that AVs would help deliver a wide range of environmental, social and economic benefits. In addition, the levels of trust in AVs among the people surveyed was also shown to be fairly high, with 55 per cent of responde