Autonomous vehicle ride-sharing to merge with public transport

Backed by Innovate UK, the MERGE Greenwich consortium - led by global fleet operator Addison Lee Group and including partners Ford, TRL, Transport Systems Catapult, DG Cities and Immense Simulations – expects to develop a world first, custom-designed blueprint that demonstrates Britain’s mobility capability.

“The MERGE Greenwich partnership will pave the way for autonomous vehicles on the streets of London at scale, to provide significantly improved transport,” said Paul McCabe, Addison Lee Group’s Director of Mobility. “This will put London at the forefront of mobility development, globally.”

The consortium believes that autonomous ride-sharing services could account for a third of all trips by private drivers in London by 2025, and a study predicts that 34 per cent of private drivers’ journeys could be replaced. Up to 30 per cent of taxi and private hire journeys could also be served by Autonomous Vehicle (AV) ride-sharing.

Overall, an AV ride-sharing service could serve up to one in seven of all trips within London within eight years, equivalent to 2.5m trips per day, and take up to 25 per cent of the total transport market by value, which is currently worth around £3.5bn.