Skip to main content

Nissan to lead human driving style AV project in the UK

Nissan’s European Technical Centre will lead a 30-month Autonomous Vehicle trial on UK country roads, high speed roundabouts, A-Roads and motorways with live traffic and different environmental conditions. Called the HumanDrive project, it will also emulate a natural human driving style with the intention of providing an enhanced experience for its occupants. The artificial driver model that controls perception and decision making will pilot the vehicle, and will be developed using artificial intelligence
February 2, 2018 Read time: 2 mins

838 Nissan’s European Technical Centre will lead a 30-month Autonomous Vehicle trial on UK country roads, high speed roundabouts, A-Roads and motorways with live traffic and different environmental conditions. Called the HumanDrive project, it will also emulate a natural human driving style with the intention of providing an enhanced experience for its occupants.

The artificial driver model that controls perception and decision making will pilot the vehicle, and will be developed using artificial intelligence technologies. The system will be subjected to testing using a range of facilities including, simulation, hardware in the loop, private test track and small sections of public roads before its full deployment.

HumanDrie is subsidized by the government’s £100m ($142m) intelligent mobility fund, which is administered by the Centre for Connected and Autonomous Vehicles and delivered by Innovate UK. It is also partly funded by industry.

In addition, the study will draw on the expertise from a range of organisations such as Hitachi and Transport Systems Catapult as well as Cranfield University, University of Leeds, Horiba Mira, Atkins, Aimsum, Sbd Automotive and Highways England.

Greg Clark, business and energy secretary, said: “Low carbon and self-driving vehicles are the future and they are going to drive forward a global revolution in mobility. This revolution has the potential to be worth £52bn [$73bn] to our economy by 2035 and the opportunity to be at the forefront of this change is one we cannot afford to miss.

“Through our Industrial Strategy and the Automotive Sector Deal investment in the development of driverless technology we are committed to working with industry to seize these opportunities. Trailblazing projects like the HumanDrive project will play a vital role helping us deliver on that ambition, with UK businesses and research institutions working with partners from around the world on the disruptive technologies and services of the future.”

For more information on companies in this article

Related Content

  • LA launches own ‘Green New Deal’
    August 15, 2019
    Los Angeles, once a temple to the automobile, has followed the Democrats in launching its own Green New Deal – and the city has made big pledges on urban mobility investment The Democratic Party has started something. The Green New Deal, one of whose most high-profile supporters is new congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, intends to persuade the public that swift action is necessary to combat climate change. Now the city of Los Angeles has followed suit, releasing what it calls ‘LA’s Green New Deal’.
  • A carbon free and accident free Europe by 2015?
    February 2, 2012
    By 2050, the Europe Commission aims to make transport in Europe carbon- and accident-free. Between now and then, however, a significant technological development and deployment effort is needed. Here, Neelie Kroes, European Commission Vice-President for the Digital Agenda, talks about what's being done. In many respects, COOPERS, CVIS and SAFESPOT, set up by the European Commission (EC) to explore the potential of cooperative infrastructure systems, are already legacy projects. Between them, the three devel
  • England’s first motorway celebrates 60th birthday with ITS upgrade
    December 5, 2018
    Sixty years today, 2,300 drivers drove along an eight-mile section of road in England – the first motorway in the country. Opened in 1958, the Preston bypass – now part of the M6 - only had two lanes in each direction, with no safety barrier in the central reservation. There was also no technology – not even simple electronic signs. Highways England is pledging to celebrate the birthday by completing four upgrades on the M6 by spring 2022. The £900m project will add extra lanes and better technolog
  • ITS UK Awards 2023: and the winners are...
    November 2, 2023
    Schemes and products included Software as a Service, active travel and urban air mobility