17 Sep 2014
Driverless cars feature of integrated transport project led by Loughborough
An early design concept of the LUTZ Pathfinder driverless pods that will be tested in Milton Keynes next year
Loughborough University is set to lead a £600,000 project which will help the government in its aim to introduce a fully integrated transport system complete with driverless cars.
Loughborough, along with De Montfort, Nottingham Trent, and Coventry universities, has been awarded a contract to support the Transport System Catapult’s (TSC) work on how to move people and goods around the country in the best way possible.
The TSC, a technology and innovations centre, aims to make transport smarter through a concept called Intelligent Mobility (IM) and is spending £150m over the next five years.
The four universities have been tasked with delivering a programme that will lead to better collaboration between academia and industry in IM.
The three-year partnership between the universities is called IMPART – Intelligent Mobility Partnership – Midlands Centre of Excellence – and it will build a new collaboration between academics, business and industry to generate new products and services.
A major theme of IM is the driverless car and, while the UK trails the likes of America – Google expect to have perfected theirs by 2018 – the government is determined to catch up.
To see press release click here