Driverless ‘pods’ made in Coventry are almost ready to be tested on the streets and pavements.
The ‘whale of pods’ – the collective name for the vehicles – has arrived in Milton Keynes thanks to the efforts of Aurrigo – a Coventry-based autonomous vehicle specialist.
Aurrigo has delivered 10 ‘Pod Zeros’ for use in the next stage of UK Autodrive – a three-year trial of self-driving vehicles – which will see autonomous vehicles take to the pavements and streets of the town.
The company also expects to trial the pods in Coventry in the next three years.
The pods are now finished and their autonomous control systems are being fine-tuned before they will form part of the fleet that could be doing up to 120km of journeys every day.
Dr Richard Fairchild, director of autonomous mobility programmes at Aurrigo, said: “This is another major milestone for UK Autodrive and our country’s desire to be at the forefront of new transport solutions.
“Importantly, it is also a massive breakthrough for our business, as we now not only have the autonomous technology in place, we also have a production line capable of being ramped up to deliver pods in low and medium volumes.
“Having a ‘whale of pods’ to test will deliver the data and user experience we need to turn this project from a trial into an everyday part of Milton Keynes life.”
Aurrigo has invested heavily in the development of a control centre in the town centre and has recruited the first three people to support the roll-out as part of what will eventually be a ten-strong team.
This means the company can safely oversee the testing before it goes live with passengers in the summer when up to 40 pods – capable of travelling up to 15 miles per hour and lasting up to 60 miles off one charge – will operate in the town centre.
For further information, please visit www.aurrigo.com or follow @aurrigotech on twitter.
