Smart Mobility Living Lab (SMLL), an urban testbed for connected and autonomous vehicles (CAVs) in the UK, has recruited four new businesses to its shared research programme (SRP).

The SRP allows members to explore, test and validate products, services and solutions at SMLL. The companies – AppyWay, Bestmile, Humanising Autonomy, and Immense Simulations – will join the SRP as SME members.

Expertise and capabilities

According to SMLL, the organisations will bring new and unique expertise and capabilities to the testbed that all users will be able to benefit from, in addition to their investment in the SRP.

“The SRP aims to bring together the most forward-thinking minds in the transport and technology industries to fully utilise the insights gained from the SMLL testbed,” said Paul Zanelli, director of strategic ventures at Transport Research Lab, which leads SMLL.

“Each of the new members adds a unique perspective which will diversify and maximise the learnings our users are able to take from the facility.” This will be instrumental in making CAVs commercially viable for safe deployment on UK roads.”

• AppyWay is a platform of data, APIs, payment solutions and kerbside management tools that unlock intelligent mobility for public and private sector organisations and helps transform cities;
• Bestmile’s fleet orchestration platform enables mobility providers to transform human-driven and autonomous vehicles of any brand or type into “ultra-efficient” fleets that meet operator and passenger performance requirements;
• Humanising Autonomy aims to set the global standard for how automated vehicles (AVs) interact with people. The company has developed an intent prediction platform that predicts the full range of pedestrian and vulnerable road user behaviour real time, improving safety and efficiency of AVs in urban environments;
• Immense Simulations provides detailed simulations of people, places and mobility systems that enable “rapid operational understanding” of how a city moves, and of the opportunities provided by innovation in transport technology.

“Each of the new members adds a unique perspective which will diversify and maximise the learnings our users are able to take from the facility”

SMLL provides companies looking to test future mobility solutions such as CAVs with access to over 24km of instrumented public roads across the Royal Borough of Greenwich and Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park in Stratford.

The public test routes are fully monitored and customers can create their own bespoke routes for the most advanced testing of self-driving cars in a real-world environment available in the UK.

SMLL said the locations provide a complex public testing environment, capable of demonstrating and evaluating the use, performance, safety and benefits of CAV technology and future transport services in a representative and technologically challenging city environment.

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