ServCity project accelerates autonomous mobility in urban environments
- UK Government-backed consortium project develops autonomous vehicle that communicates with city infrastructure to improve the vehicle’s situational awareness in an urban environment
- 100% electric Nissan LEAF used as the base vehicle for testing, completing 1,600 test miles during challenging validation tests of future autonomous drive technology
- ServCity contributes to the evolution of autonomous drive technologies at Nissan
ServCity, a consortium project backed by Nissan and supported by the UK Government has reached its conclusion, deploying advanced autonomous drive technology in complex urban environments in London, integrated with the city’s infrastructure.
Following three years of research and more than 1,600 autonomous test miles driven, Nissan has worked alongside consortium partners to develop a blueprint which will help UK cities incorporate advanced autonomous vehicle technologies with city infrastructure. The project also explored how cities could deliver a “Robotaxi” style service in the future for the benefit of city residents and commuters.
Built upon a 100% electric Nissan LEAF, the ServCity connected and autonomous vehicle (CAV) has successfully completed increasingly challenging validation trials on the roads of London, connected to the Smart Mobility Living Lab (SMLL) in Greenwich.
ServCity was able use SMLL’s network of roadside sensors and a data processing suite to create a futuristic co-operative infrastructure environment, sending new sources of data to the CAV to improve its situational awareness. The infrastructure can detect an object which is not within line of sight of the vehicle (e.g. around a corner or in the distance) and inform the vehicle so that it can manoeuvre to ensure smooth traffic flow, such as changing lane.
This project, as with all the previous CAV development projects backed by UK Government funding, is an important means of giving people the confidence that CAVs are safe to introduce on UK roads as well as having a demonstrable benefit to society. To that end, the finale of the project comprised a series of demonstrations to stakeholders where guests could experience first-hand, advanced autonomous drive technologies integrated with CAV-ready infrastructure on the streets of Greenwich.
ServCity is jointly funded by the UK government and consortium partners, the government’s £100m Intelligent Mobility fund administered by the Centre for Connected and Autonomous Vehicles (CCAV) and delivered by the UK’s innovation agency, Innovate UK. Over three years, six partners – Nissan, Connected Places Catapult, TRL, Hitachi Europe, the University of Nottingham and SBD Automotive – have been collaborating to develop a blueprint that will guide OEMs, transport providers and city planners to get ‘CAV-ready’ in the UK’s cities.
Says Robert Bateman, Manager, Nissan Technical Centre Europe and Nissan Project Manager for ServCity:
“Not only has Nissan provided the 100% electric Nissan LEAF as a test vehicle, our talented group of engineers have also contributed to the research and development of cutting-edge autonomous drive technology for use within the project. This has enabled the development of a test vehicle that is able to autonomously navigate the busy streets of London alongside other road users – both stationery and moving – while connected with city infrastructure.
Adds Transport Minister Jesse Norman:
“The Government has invested £7million in this project to be at the forefront of innovation. Since then ServCity has proven key to answer the practical questions of how to integrate self-driving vehicles into cities for the public good.”
