Skip to main content

UK consortium awarded funding to develop autonomous vehicles

The StreetWise consortium, headed by UK artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML), start-up has been awarded US$16.4 million (£12.8 million) in grant support for its US$29.5 million (£23 million) project. Awarded as part of the UK government’s Centre for Connected and Autonomous Vehicles CAV2 competition, the grant will enable the consortium to develop and demonstrate autonomous transport in London, with the aim of launching a supervised trial of an autonomous vehicle fleet in the third quarter
April 24, 2017 Read time: 2 mins
The StreetWise consortium, headed by UK artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML), start-up has been awarded US$16.4 million (£12.8 million) in grant support for its US$29.5 million (£23 million) project.


Awarded as part of the UK government’s Centre for Connected and Autonomous Vehicles CAV2 competition, the grant will enable the consortium to develop and demonstrate autonomous transport in London, with the aim of launching a supervised trial of an autonomous vehicle fleet in the third quarter of 2019.

The StreetWise project aims to show that the technology is now sufficiently mature to be safe in urban environments and sufficiently intelligent to co-exist with human drivers, road users and pedestrians. It also plans to demonstrate how this technology can be used to reduce commuting costs, cut accident rates, reduce congestion and cut emissions.

The core aims of the project are to develop the autonomous vehicle technology, develop user interfaces, define and price the service, establish viable vehicle management and maintenance processes, attain (provisional) regulatory approval for that service and insure and operate it to a pre-commercial (TRL5) level.

The project will be delivered by a consortium led by FiveAI working in collaboration with the 7333 University of Oxford, the Transport Research Laboratory, 1466 Transport for London and automotive personal insurance provider 4236 Direct Line Group.

For more information on companies in this article

Related Content

  • Navya showcases Autonom cab in Paris
    November 10, 2017
    Navya has unveiled its Autonom Cab (AC) in Paris to address challenges urban populations face when travelling in and around cities. The cab, designed to be completely autonomous, comes without a cockpit, steering wheel or pedals and can carry up to six passengers. It is capable of speeds up to 90km/h, but will average towards 50km/h to conform with local speed limits. The Navya app enables users to order an AC and open and close the vehicle’s doors to start it up. The cab is also capable of pre-empting
  • Trust me, I'm a driverless car
    October 12, 2018
    Developing C/AV technology is the easy bit: now the vehicles need to gain people’s confidence. So does the public feel safe in driverless hands – and how much might they be willing to pay for the privilege? The Venturer consortium’s final user and technology test (Trial 3) explored levels of user trust in scenarios where a connected and autonomous vehicle (C/AV) is interacting with cyclists, pedestrians and other road users on a controlled road network. Trial 3 consisted of experimental runs in the
  • UK researchers take first prize for traffic control system that thinks for itself
    November 13, 2015
    A team of scientists at the University of Huddersfield, led by Dr Mauro Vallati of its Department of Informatics has won a prize for its research into the use of artificial intelligence (AI) as a way of keeping the traffic flowing. The second Autonomic Road Transport Systems competition which took place under the aegis of the long-running EU-backed research framework named European Co-operation in Science and Technology (COST). Dr Vallati formed a team with two fellow researchers in the field whom he h
  • Four out of five people ‘think autonomous vehicles are a good idea’
    August 23, 2017
    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