Connected and autonomous vehicle consortium demonstrates latest innovations

Research news

Thursday 12 April 2018

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A project involving Coventry University to develop the most advanced environment for testing connected and autonomous vehicles, demonstrated its latest innovations on at Jaguar Land Rover’s Gaydon site on Thursday 12 April.

The UK Connected Intelligence Transport Environment (UK CITE project will create the UK’s first fully connected infrastructure, using a globally unique combination of wireless technologies, which can enable real-world testing in a safe and managed way. The project is funded by the Government’s £100m Connected and Autonomous Vehicle fund, delivered by Innovate UK. The project is worth a total of £7.1m, including investment from the Government and Highways England.

Coventry University’s involvement in the project focus on human factors and traffic modelling and the event at Jaguar Land Rover’s Gaydon site displayed the technological advances made by the consortium to key partners, covering stakeholders from the automotive industry, technology and infrastructure providers and operators, and academia.

The talking car technologies demonstrated were the consortium’s Emergency Vehicle Warning (EVW), Emergency Electronic Brake Light (EEBL), Road Works Warning (RWW) and Traffic Condition Warning (TCW). These connected technologies allow cars to communicate with each other and the road infrastructure, providing intelligent insight on road conditions.

All the technologies demonstrated at Gaydon provide advanced warning to the driver. This intelligent insight in to road conditions is a key benefit to Connected Vehicles, whether manned or autonomous.

We’ve been working with our UK CITE partners to install the infrastructure needed to help vehicles communicate with each other and the environment around them. Safety is our top priority and the safety of road users will continue to be an integral part of this project, especially during any on-road testing of this emerging technology.

Ian Thompson, senior technical adviser, Highways England