Smart City Consultancy driving forward with self-driving shuttles!

Smart City Consultancy are pleased to announce our and our partners success in securing £1.8 million grant-funding to deliver new self-driving shuttle services into Milton Keynes. The award is part of a total award of £18.5 million of government funding being made available to UK companies to strengthen the capabilities of the UK’s connected and automated mobility supply chain.

Our StreetCAV project will create a ‘plug-and-play’ roadside connectivity solution enabling self-driving shuttles, robotic and drone-based services to operate safely and securely, maintaining connections wherever they go. With world-class experts and UK-based partners, we will deploy StreetCAV and a new self-driving shuttle service into Milton Keynes, as a blueprint for UK-wide deployment.

Ian Pulford, Director of Smart City Consultancy said "At Smart City Consultancy, we are passionate about delivering new innovations that offer opportunities to drive adoption and up-take of new autonomous services, creating jobs and delivering highly differentiated experiences for the travelling public – the StreetCAV project is designed to do just that, and our job is to ensure not only the project delivers, but that the things we achieve live on into the future, not only in Milton Keynes, but for the benefit of the UK at large…”

Brian Matthews, Head of Transport Innovation in Milton Keynes City Council said "Within Milton Keynes City Council, we are committed to delivering new modes of transport across our city, and this vision is at the heart of our long-term strategic plan. We are delighted to be part of the StreetCAV project, and see this as a key enabler for us in terms of delivering demand-responsive, autonomous shuttle services across Milton Keynes, reducing congestion, and creating a cleaner, greener environment as part of our net zero ambitions. We are delighted that global organisations have chosen to work with us in Milton Keynes, building on our reputation as a living urban laboratory, and providing the potential for new high-tech, high-skill jobs in the region."

StreetCAV is one of thirteen projects, involving 43 companies, that will improve the safety and security of self-driving vehicles, by filling specific technology gaps, improving performance, reliability and scale-up opportunities in the UK and globally. The grants, awarded as part of the Centre for Connected and Autonomous Vehicles (CCAV) Commercialising Connected and Automated Mobility: Supply Chain competition, will help British companies seize early opportunities to develop self-driving technologies, products and services ready for the connected and automated mobility market and form part of the Centre for Connected and Autonomous Vehicles Connected and Automated Mobility programme, complementing an £81 million investment for CAM technology.

The Commercialising CAM programme is funded by the Centre for Connected and Automated Vehicles, a joint unit between the Department for Business and Trade (DBT) and the Department for Transport (DfT) and delivered in partnership with Innovate UK and Zenzic.

The CCAM Supply Chain competition was launched in October 2022 to support the delivery of early commercialisable Connected and Autonomous Mobility technologies, products and services and is part of the Government’s vision for self-driving vehicles.

Connected and automated mobility 2025: realising the benefits of self-driving vehicles - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk)

You can find the government announcements here:

Over £50 million awarded to cutting edge manufacturing projects - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk)