The four winning projects, awarded a total of £51m, will test the speed, safety and potential opportunities for delivering CAV innovation, says the Department for Business, Energy & Industrial Strategy.

Four consortia – across five across locations in the West Midlands – have been selected in the first round. These are:

• HORIBA MIRA in Nuneaton will build a new site alongside its existing vehicle test tracks where automated vehicles can be tested at the limits of their speed and handling to ensure they are safe
• Millbrook Proving Ground in Bedfordshire and Remote Applications in Challenging Environments (RACE) based in the Culham Science Centre in Oxfordshire will set up a range of different test areas mimicking increasingly realistic city driving environments, where automated vehicles can be tested before being taken onto public roads
• Two projects will adapt real world locations for testing of automated vehicles in live traffic:
  • TRL will lead a project to set up live test environments in Greenwich and Stratford’s Olympic Park in London
  • Warwick Manufacturing Group will set up real world test environments in Coventry and Birmingham

Graham Hoare, Chair of the Auto Council Technology Group commented:

“Currently no other country has taken this innovative leveraged national approach and this can be a major differentiator on the global stage.”

“This will be a globally unique set of capabilities that is co-ordinated and developed to provide a solution to industry that will enhance delivery efficiency, collaboration and knowledge growth.”

Last week the government introduced the Automated and Electric Vehicles Bill as part of its plans to boost green transport. The Bill will seek to increase the access and availability of chargepoints for electric cars.

It will also give the government powers to make it compulsory for chargepoints to be installed across the country and enable drivers of automated cars to be insured on UK roads.

See also: UK government sets connected vehicle security plan in motion