Three British companies are collaborating to bring automated "pods" to the streets of Greenwich, England, this summer.
Westfield Sportscar, Heathrow Enterprises, and Oxbotica are participating in the GATEway (Greenwich Automated Transport Environment) driverless car project. Together, they will adapt existing Ultra PODS—the tram-like vehicles operating in Heathrow Airport's Terminal 5—to navigate city streets without dedicated tracks.
Each company brings its own expertise to the project: Westfield covers design, manufacturing, and testing of the vehicles; Heathrow Enterprises is responsible for software engineering; and Oxbotica will deploy its autonomous control software.
The current set of Ultra PODS reach a top speed of about 25 mph and can carry up to six passengers, Engadget reported.
Set for the U.K. Smart Mobility Living Lab in Greenwich, the £8 million ($11 million) program will trial a series of different use cases for automated vehicles, including driverless shuttles, autonomous valet parking, and automated urban deliveries.
"Demonstrating autonomous pods in public operation around the Greenwich peninsular will be a huge step in determining how this technology interacts with both passengers and pedestrians," Oxbotica CEO Graeme Smith said in a statement.
Greenwich is one of four cities (along with Bristol, Milton Keynes, and Coventry) that won a £19 million competition to host driverless car trials, which aim to test public acceptance.
"If the trials prove successful, we expect these iconic vehicles to become a familiar sight in many cities around the world," said Nick Reed, GATEway technical director.
Britain has been eyeing driverless cars since July 2013, but the ability to test them was limited. In February 2015, the government announced plans to test autonomous vehicles on public roads last summer.
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