VENTURER
Project team
Principal investigator:
Postdoc:
- Dr Andrea Tassi
Programme Overview:
| Research area | Transport |
|---|---|
| Dates | July 2015 - June 2018 |
| Funder | Innovate UK |
| Contact person | Dr Robert Piechocki |
| Website | https://www.venturer-cars.com/ |
Widespread adoption of autonomous vehicles will provide a range of social and environmental benefits such as: increased efficiency, safety, comfort and providing mobility options to a wider public, whilst also delivering benefits to the economy. Technological progress is relentless and cars are already becoming increasingly automated. Many modern cars incorporate parking and lane following systems, therefore already operate semi autonomously. However, the dawn of full autonomy (cars that drive themselves) will represent a revolution on our roads – the biggest change we have seen since the invention of the internal combustion engine. Autonomous vehicles will also create new challenges and opportunities for automotive and IT sectors insurance firms and will require new legislative framework.
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The consortium
The VENTURER consortium brings together a partnership of public, private and academic experts in a collaborative R&D project investigating Connected and Autonomous Vehicles (CAV). VENTURER focuses on the people as well as the technology side and will attempt to understand the blockers and drivers to wide scale adoption of CAV capability.
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Increasing safety
Human error is a factor in over 90 percent of deaths and injuries on our roads. CAVs look to reduce this significantly. The vehicles will be required to respect all traffic laws - observing all speed limits and traffic signals. They will not tailgate other drivers or undertake risky manoeuvres. The full positive impact associated with CAV will be understood in time.
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Project objectives
The VENTURER project builds connected and autonomous vehicles and tests them on roads in Bristol and South Gloucestershire. The project is focused very much with the end in mind i.e. the behaviours that will drive adoption and the insurance and legislative perspectives that must be developed in order to facilitate successful deployment on the roads. The project also develops world leading wireless and sensor fusion technology.
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Wireless connectivity
The future driverless vehicles will be integrated into smart city infrastructure and hence will require fit for purpose V2I wireless connectivity. The vehicles will also be exchanging sensory data via V2V wireless communication links to allow propagation of hazard warnings and "look ahead" functionality. Communications Systems and Network (CSN) research group at UoB provides its renown V2X expertise to assure future CAVs benefit from ubiquitous and dependable wireless connectivity.
