Aurrigo International PLC has announced its leading role in the EU-Funded Living Lab for Autonomous Electric Vehicles, in which its Auto-Shuttle vehicles will run with a safety driver on board, while developing towards the goal of using remote supervisor monitoring, signalling a new era in autonomy in public transportation.
The project will be running across the European cities Prague, Brno and Milton Keynes and is conducted in collaboration with industry, operators, cities, and University College London as the project leader.
The project is moving autonomous public transport to the next level of autonomy, by working towards removing the safety driver from the vehicle and using remote supervision. The project aims to build trust in autonomous driving, through a robust transnational safety framework as well as promoting user acceptance and trust in close collaboration with citizens, cities, operators, academia, industry, and policy makers.
By working with multiple cities in more than one country, the participants are gaining experience from different types of street layouts, road conditions and public attitudes to autonomy. This phase of the project will also examine integration with trip planning applications used in those cities.
“Although we work all over the world, this is the first Auto-Shuttle deployment in mainland Europe for Aurrigo, and we are delighted to be working with such a prestigious group of partners to move towards this important step in autonomous public transport,” said David Keene, Aurrigo, as CEO “The medieval, cobbled streets of Prague built before cars or buses were dreamt of are in stark contrast to the modern roads of Milton Keynes, which shows the importance of testing in multiple cities.”
The Aurrigo technology suite on the Auto-Shuttle brings together LiDAR and cameras with its own in-house developed software to give the Auto-Shuttle a constant, 3D, all-weather picture of its surroundings to enhance safety and efficiency.
“The Aurrigo Auto-Shuttle is a perfect vehicle for this project,” said Keene, “Because we create the vehicle, software and autonomous driving hardware in-house, to work in perfect harmony and this level of integration is vital when breaking new ground in driverless technology.”
