Driverless cars learn from humans in Greenwich project

The purpose of the Move_UK project, which has received £3.4m of funding from the government’s Intelligent Mobility fund, is to develop new validation methods that will reduce the time taken to test automated driving systems, thereby speeding the technology’s time to market. Results from the trial are also expected to help shape new safety requirements and insurance products designed for autonomous driving.

Led by Bosch, the three-year project also involves Jaguar Land Rover – which is supplying the test vehicles - Telematics specialist The Floow, the Transport Research Laboratory (TRL), and Direct Line insurance.

A further consortium partner, the Royal Borough of Greenwich is operating a fleet of five conventionally driven, but heavily instrumented, Land Rover vehicles that have already completed more than 30,000 miles of driving on public roads around Greenwich.

These cars are being used to collect data on how human drivers react to range of different driving events. They are also equipped with driver assistance systems that have been-decoupled from the operation of the car so that engineers are able to compare in real time the behaviour and decision making of the vehicle’s autonomous systems with that of the human driver.