LONDON, UK -- Registration for this summer’s GATEway (Greenwich Automated Transport Environment) driverless shuttles trials opened this week.
The street trials will take place later this year in Greenwich. Members of the public participating will be able to hop into an autonomous GATEway shuttle on a specific route in the London borough. The purpose of the trials is to gather public reaction to automated shuttle vehicles within an urban landscape, according to TRL, the company that leads the GATEway project.
GATEway, an £8 million project that will be conducting three types of automated vehicle trials this year, is developing autonomous vehicle test criteria and benchmarks to enable “industry, government and society to gain critical knowledge, safely accelerate innovation and deliver smart city integration.”
Westfield Sportscars, Heathrow Enterprises and Oxbotica joined the GATEway project and will be working together to update the Ultra PODS in operation at Heathrow Airport’s Terminal 5 to create the driverless shuttle pods for the Greenwich trials.
While TRL told Gov1 that the GATEway “project team has chosen not to disclose any information or details about the sign-up at this stage,” there was buzz--both positive and negative--about the GATEway public trial.
As of today, more than 92% of 600 that voted on the London Telegraph website said that they would take a test ride.
Others voiced concerns about the implications driverless public transit has for jobs on Twitter:
You can now sign up to test driverless cars in London https://t.co/fJkbZFkPZc pic.twitter.com/hziWCH2GQH
— The Telegraph (@Telegraph) May 13, 2016
Learn more about the public trial on GATEway’s website.
Watch a Guardian News video about Britain’s autonomous vehicle technologyies including discussion about the upcoming Greenwich public shuttle trial with Nick Reed, technical lead for GATEway:
