FiveAI launches the largest commuter trials for driverless cars on London streets

The trial will be conducted on a pre-defined 19 kilometre route

StreetWise, a government-backed consortium led by FiveAI, has launched the largest commuter trials for self-driving vehicles on public roads in London.

The trial will be conducted on a pre-defined 19-km route and will see autonomous cars self-navigating through busy roads in the London boroughs of Croydon and Bromley. The cars will pick up and drop off over 100 volunteers throughout the course of the trial at pre-defined spots. The participants will be given specific time slots to take part in the research.

The commuter trials are not open to the general public, and only those individuals who are invited by insurance giant Direct Line Group will take part in the trials.

The participants will be asked a series of questions before, during and after their trip to provide information to researchers about how the driverless cars reacted to real-life situations on busy roads.

The tests will be conducted throughout October and November. During the tests, the vehicles will have a safety driver at all times. A safety technician will also sit in the front passenger seat to monitor the performance of the self-driving system.

The technology powering the autonomous cars (software and other tools) has been developed by FiveAI, a UK-based start-up that has raised about $35 million in funding to date. The reference software stack used in the FiveAI's self-driving system was developed and trained using a data set from complex UK roads and cities, including London.

FiveAI's partners in this project include Direct Line and the Transport Research Laboratory (TRL).

Direct Line is one of the largest car insurance providers in the UK, while TRL is the global centre for innovation in transport and mobility.

"Shared, self-driving vehicle services promise a better way for people to get around," said Stan Boland, co-founder and CEO of FiveAI.

"We'll be working with forward-thinking partners to make these services a reality in European urban environments. The lessons learned through StreetWise provide an important step towards that goal," he added.

David Hynd, chief scientist at TRL, added: "This is a significant milestone, not only for the StreetWise consortium but for the entire CAV [connected autonomous vehicle] sector in the UK and beyond."

"We're very excited about entering this phase of the project to create credible and real-world insights on the willingness to use, and attitudes towards a shared, automated service. [This] will go a long way to helping us understand how these services can meet the needs of end-users."

StreetWise is funded by UK Research and Innovation through the Industrial Strategy Challenge Fund, and is part of a programme managed by the Centre for Connected and Autonomous Vehicles.