Nissan leads multi-million-pound Government-backed autonomous vehicle project

A multi-million-pound project led by Nissan to develop an Autonomous Vehicle capable of safely driving in residential, urban, and rural environments is one of 13 to have received a share of £18.5m in Government funding yesterday.

The grants, as part of the Centre for Connected and Autonomous Vehicles (CCAV) Commercialising Connected and Automated Mobility: Supply Chain competition, will help 43 British companies across 13 projects seize early opportunities to develop self-driving technologies, products and service ready for the connected and automated mobility market.

In August 2022, the Government announced its approach to supporting the safe deployment of self-driving vehicles to deliver societal and economic benefits. It is the Government’s vision that the UK will start seeing the deployments of commercially operating self-driving vehicles, improving the ways in which people and goods are moved across the nation.

To turn this vision into reality, CCAV launched the Commercialising Connected and Automated Mobility (CCAM) programme to target early commercial self-driving vehicle opportunities and support the UK supply chain to grow and fill technology gaps necessary for their deployment.

On February 1, the Government announced the winners of its deployments competition, where seven successful projects from around the UK form the most advanced set of commercial, self-driving passenger and freight operations anywhere in the world. Projects are now underway in Belfast, Edinburgh, Sunderland, Strategic Road Network, Coventry and Cambridge.

With a total funding of £28.5m in joint Government and industry support, 13 new supply chain projects will complement the deployment projects and will play a pivotal role in advancing the self-driving revolution by reinforcing the UK’s position at the forefront of connected and automated mobility technologies.

Chancellor of the Exchequer Jeremy Hunt commented: “From farm tractors fuelled by hydrogen to rapid-charge first responder motorcycles, these projects receiving funding today show we are not short of innovators in this country.

“By supporting growth in the industries of the future, including through better regulation, we are delivering on our plan to get the economy growing and make the UK the best place in the world to start and grow a business.”

These projects will be delivered in partnership with CCAV’s delivery partners, Zenzic and Innovate UK to bring together government and industry to support the development of sovereign capabilities within the UK CAM supply chain.

The selected projects will address critical technology gaps, enhance safety and security, improve performance and reliability, and create scalable opportunities both domestically and globally.

By Matthew Neville – Senior Correspondent, Bdaily

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