Cambridge Connector

The Greater Cambridge region has achieved growth and success on an international scale, but high commuter demand has led to issues of congestion and poor air quality. The Cambridge Autonomous Vehicle strategy details opportunities to use AVs to tackle these problems.

Project Connector will undertake an at-scale trial of on-demand self-driving vehicles with up to 13 electric vehicles providing passenger services that integrate with existing transport services within Cambridge.

Services will operate on two sites where there are identified opportunities: The University of Cambridge's West Cambridge Campus and the Cambridge Biomedical Campus.

Self-driving vehicles will leverage a 5G connected Remote Monitoring and Tele-Operation service to enable a cost-effective deployment that ensures complicated edge cases can be accommodated through temporary override of vehicle automation.

Three electric vehicle models are planned for use, the Kia EV9 and the Mellor Sigma 7 & 8. The fleet will include 2 wheelchair accessible versions ensuring an inclusive service provision. Conigital's lift-and-shift self-driving platform will be integrated with these vehicles to provide existing functionality that will be further enhanced to allow operation with remote operations support.

System validation and verification will be undertaken initially in a simulation environment using a suite of edge cases. Specific research will be undertaken in testing methodologies for L4 vehicles with no-onboard operator and system validation will be completed at the test-track.

A safety case will be prepared by an independent organisation to ensure an objective assessment is undertaken.

The 12-month trial will be undertaken in a phased manner, initially with engineers providing on-board supervision, migrating to trained operators and culminating in a final phase with only remote operators (i.e. no on-board supervision, subject to legislation).

Key to the project is engagement with transport operators: providing a self-driving service run by operators with operator staff and management, ticketing and payment mechanisms.

A key objective of the project is to assess the commercial viability and challenges in operating self-driving passenger services as a transport mode that integrates with the wider transport eco-system.

The inclusion of existing transport operators as the project operator and associated knowledge transfer will offer critical insights between all the project partners and provide an opportunity to continue service operations beyond the project on a commercial basis.

Key external stakeholders will be engaged to ensure relevant insights are shared to help define future strategy and regulation and help accelerate similar deployments elsewhere.