Self-Driving Buses Carry Passengers In Cambridge Trials

The first custom-made autonomous shuttles capable of carrying passengers are taking to the roads alongside other traffic as part of ground-breaking trials in Cambridge.

Transport minister Rachel Maclean MP was among the first passengers on board the Aurrigo shuttle on Thursday as it embarked on a fully autonomous journey around the University of Cambridge’s West Cambridge campus.

The trial could pave the way for a range of autonomous services to provide on-demand public transport for workers at large employment sites – such as the Cambridge Biomedical Campus and West Cambridge – and potentially for people enjoying an evening in the city in the future. 

Rachel Maclean, Transport Minister said:“Self-driving vehicles present a number of opportunities for the UK from providing safer, greener and more reliable transport services to creating tens of thousands of well-paid and skilled jobs across the nation.

“This project is hugely exciting and is an example of how self-driving vehicles could make it easier for people to travel on the UK’s future public transport network.”

The Greater Cambridgeshire Partnership and Smart Cambridge secured Government funding from the Centre for Connected and Autonomous Vehicles (CCAV), part of Innovate UK, in 2018 to launch the project.

As part of the project consortium, Coventry-based engineering firm Aurrigo, the autonomous vehicle division of RDM Group, began development of autonomous shuttles for use in Cambridge following successful trials of their four-seater pod. 

The Aurrigo team began mapping the test route from the Madingley Road Park & Ride site to and around the West Cambridge campus with one vehicle late last year, but had to pause work during the national Covid-19 lockdown.

Work resumed on the project following the lifting of restrictions, and a second shuttle arrived on site on 7 May to begin mapping the route for the trial journeys.  Once complete, the Aurrigo Shuttles began running in a combination of autonomous and manual modes along the route to test the systems.

Further passenger trials are planned during June with select passengers to be invited on board the 10 seater shuttle by the project team. 

Safety operators are onboard the vehicle during the project trials and are able to regain manual control of the vehicle immediately at any time if required. The vehicles will run at a maximum of 20mph, are fully electric and have a range of 100 miles.