"No Doubt. Driver Out!"

This project will take a crucial step towards enabling fully driverless autonomy - the removal of all human operators from an autonomous vehicle.

Full autonomy (SAE Level 4/5), both technically and commercially, necessitates driverless operation without constant human supervision. This project aims to tackle the complex transitory step from the current reliance during field trials on an in-vehicle safety driver to fully remote operation where there is no vehicle occupant. It will build the foundations of fully autonomous operations in public environments, specifically in the domain of autonomous goods delivery.

The project will be led by Oxbotica, whose innovative autonomy software has been extensively trialled on the streets of Birmingham, Oxford and London in previous Innovate UK projects. Our consortium also includes TRL, a global centre for innovation in surface transport and mobility, BSi, the leading UK national standards body, and UKAEA-RACE, a CCAV test bed in Culham, Oxfordshire, with which Oxbotica has a longstanding relationship. The project continues a successful partnership between these entities and introduces Ocado Group, UK based pioneering online grocery technology company, as a future AV fleet operator.

The project has two essential paths of innovation - technical and safety assurance. These paths are of equal importance, both in achieving fully remote operation and in ensuring equivalent functional and operational safety. On the technical path, Oxbotica will be developing brand new redundant monitoring and fallback capabilities, which will allow an autonomous vehicle to run without real-time human supervision.

On the safety assurance path, Oxbotica and its partners will develop new operational and safety assurance processes that will enable fully autonomous trials to be conducted. Oxbotica holds the distinction of being the first organisation to be audited against vehicle autonomy safety standard PAS1881, and will also refine its existing PAS1881-based safety case to address the removal of the safety driver, and the systems safety questions this introduces.

With this project, Oxbotica and its industry-leading partners aim to continue their extensive history of technical achievement and industry-leading safety assurance mechanisms, and to take those first crucial steps towards true vehicle autonomy.