I’M SITTING in the future of transport. It’s slow, tentative and totally autonomous. Driverless car trials have finally reached the UK, with two-seater “pods” zipping down pedestrianised streets in Milton Keynes.
The purple-and-white vehicle, designed by automotive firm RDM, looks like a cross between a golf cart and a bubble. The doors open vertically, but inside it just looks like a regular automatic car hooked up to an iPad. It’s hard to tell that it has been kitted out with driverless control systems by Oxbotica, a spin-off company from the University of Oxford’s Mobile Robotics Group (OMRG).
Tom Wilcox, a senior software engineer for the project, tells me he’s there to grab the steering wheel if something goes wrong. He taps the tablet and off we go.
The pod accelerates to speeds of 8 kilometres an hour (we are in a pedestrian zone after all) and an on-board computer controls the steering to avoid hitting obstacles. The pod has a variety of cameras and sensors, including radar and the laser-based equivalent, lidar, which collect information about the surroundings to help the vehicle figure out where it is in the pre-mapped environment.
“We don’t see a difference between the road or the pavement,” says Paul Newman, director of the OMRG. “The vehicles always have to ask the questions, ‘Where am I? What’s around me? And what should I do?’ And we make sure that the systems are in place so that the cars have the answers.”
It might not seem as sexy as Tesla or Google’s driverless projects, but the trial demonstrates how most people are likely to first experience driverless cars: as a shared transit system in city centres.
“We’re ready for the public right now,”says Newman. “I think you will see autonomous vehicles rolled out in places like Olympic parks or central cities pretty soon, but it’s going to be a while before you can go into a garage and buy a car without a steering wheel.”
Initially, 40 driverless pods will navigate the city’s 250-kilometre network of walkways and cycle paths, with a select group of passengers from the public. Over the next few years, the same tech will be put on roads in Coventry, Greenwich and Bristol.
“Simply tell an app where you want to go, then a pod will pick you up and drive you to your destination“
The hope is that the pods can act like taxis. You will simply tell an app where you want to go, then a pod will pick you up and drive you to your destination.
Similar tech is popping up elsewhere. MIT spin-off company nuTonomy started testing driverless taxis in Singapore this summer, and Uber began field tests in Pittsburgh last month.
A few recent high-profile accidents have put the spotlight on the safety of self-driving cars, but Newman says the technology just needs some time to develop. Every year, over a million people die from road accidents due to human error. Newman believes driverless cars can do better.
“There’s a whole class of errors that computers never make,” he says. “Self-driving cars never become inattentive, which is a big cause of human error.”
Another possible advantage of the system is environmental – the vehicles are electric. As for worries about batteries running out, a group of pods could charge up while the others are in service.
My test ride is a little bumpy and surprisingly creaky. As the pod pulls up to our destination, I feel a little underwhelmed. The journey was like almost any other that I’ve taken – but that, perhaps, is the point.
This article appeared in print under the headline “Hail a pod in UK’s first driverless tech trial”