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Driverless shuttle test set for London shared-use cycle pathLHR-pods (TRL).png

Driverless shuttle test set for London shared-use cycle path

Oxford-based autonomous tech firm will run test on Greenwich riverside over the next three weeks
by Elliot Johnston
Sun, Apr 09, 2017 10:09
10

Cyclists and pedestrians on the shared-use Thames-side path in Greenwich will soon be jostling for space with a fleet of autonomous vehicles.

Over the next three weeks Oxford-based mobile autonomy firm Oxbotica will be testing its hardware in a bid to "gain acceptance from members of the public."

The shuttles or pods that will be being tested on a two-mile stretch of shared-use path near the O2 Arena feature much of the same technology that's contained in the driverless cars being developed by Google, Tesla, and various other automotive and technology companies.

>Read more: London's first driverless cars revealed and they'll be driving on the pavement

Each shuttle carries five cameras and three lasers which allow the vehicle to see 100m ahead of itself. The vehicle can carry four passengers, including one trained individual who can stop the pod if required.

The vehicle has a top speed of 10mph, doesn't have a steering wheel or an obvious brake. But despite the lack of conventional safety measures Oxbotica's CEO Graeme Smith told the BBC that the pods have been "designed to be safe and fail safe specifically in a pedestrianised environment."

Driverless vehicles have been met with a healthy amount of scepticism from members of the cycling and non-cycling public.

>Read more: Google working to make self-driving cars more aggressive

Fears over safety and accountability have coloured the debate surrounding the technology which advocates say will revolutionise the safety of our roads.

Smith, though, hopes that tests such as the one his firm is putting on in Greenwich this week will start to change that public perception.

"Very few people have experienced an autonomous vehicle, so this is about letting people see one in person," Smith said.

"We hope to gain acceptance from members of the public for vehicles sharing this kind of space with them.

"We are also looking at how people in the vehicle respond when being transported from A to B."

driverless pods
Greenwich

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10 comments

Avatar
oldstrath | 7 years ago
3 likes

It's a powered vehicle. It belongs on a road, not on a cycle path.

Avatar
kevvjj replied to oldstrath | 7 years ago
3 likes

oldstrath wrote:

It's a powered vehicle. It belongs on a road, not on a cycle path.

e-bikes are powered vehicles... and they can easily do 25mph.

Avatar
FluffyKittenofT... replied to kevvjj | 7 years ago
0 likes
kevvjj wrote:

oldstrath wrote:

It's a powered vehicle. It belongs on a road, not on a cycle path.

e-bikes are powered vehicles... and they can easily do 25mph.

Though they aren't nearly as large as these things. They also have a human on them who can be reasoned with and held to account.
(Have to admit I'm not wildly keen on them on cycle paths either, mind)

Avatar
oldstrath | 7 years ago
6 likes

It's a powered vehicle. It belongs on a road, not on a cycle path.

Avatar
Dr_Lex | 7 years ago
2 likes

"You know, I have one simple request. And that is to have Sharks shuttles with frickin' laser beams attached to their heads bumpers!"

Avatar
burtthebike | 7 years ago
3 likes

Given the other story on here about dogs, I wonder how these things will cope with a dog on the opposite side of the path to its owner on a twenty metre extending lead?  Or the cyclists having to take extreme avoiding action to avoid the dogs running in front of them?

Avatar
hawkinspeter | 7 years ago
9 likes

A shared use path? I'm not sure that's the best environment for testing out driverless tech as they'll need to behave differently than being on a road. On the one hand, they won't need to deal with traffic rules and can go slower, but they'll need to be far more careful of random wandering pets and children and joggers wearing headphones.

Besides, I don't want to see vehicles of any sort on shared use paths - they're where you go to get away from vehicles. Put them on the public roads instead to get a good interaction with the public. With all those cameras, they could earn their keep just with catching all the phone-using drivers.

Avatar
wycombewheeler replied to hawkinspeter | 7 years ago
5 likes
hawkinspeter wrote:

A shared use path? I'm not sure that's the best environment for testing out driverless tech as they'll need to behave differently than being on a road. On the one hand, they won't need to deal with traffic rules and can go slower, but they'll need to be far more careful of random wandering pets and children and joggers wearing headphones.

Besides, I don't want to see vehicles of any sort on shared use paths - they're where you go to get away from vehicles. Put them on the public roads instead to get a good interaction with the public. With all those cameras, they could earn their keep just with catching all the phone-using drivers.

Surely the perfect environment. No chance of damaging precious cars, only injuring cyclists and pedestrians.
/sarcasm.

Avatar
bassjunkieuk replied to hawkinspeter | 7 years ago
2 likes

hawkinspeter wrote:

 With all those cameras, they could earn their keep just with catching all the phone-using drivers.

 

This point was actually made in a rather interesting blog post I read about driverless cars last week, in that in the future when we have lots of driverless cars they could provide valuable CCTV footage for the Police in the event of an incident as they'd need 360 degree vision, if a crime is committed for example the Police could pull in video from any nearby/passing vehicles.

Of course, you could go all ultra 1984 on that Big Brother potential of having such a huge network of video footage, especially in dense inner city areas!

Avatar
ron611087 | 7 years ago
5 likes

There's one sure way to get them off bike paths. Cyclists just need to take turns in riding in front of them at 5mph.

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