Oxbotica and AppliedEV to develop fully autonomous multi-purpose vehicle

Published by

Nicky Godding

Oxbotica and AppliedEV have announced a collaboration to develop a fully autonomous, multi-purpose electric vehicle capable of being deployed in a wide range of environments for a variety of commercial applications.

The project will see Oxbotica integrate its world-leading autonomous vehicle software with AppliedEV’s programmable and configurable EV platform. The vehicle will be driverless, marking a huge step on the journey towards commercial autonomy.

Industrial logistics and goods delivery will be the first industries targeted for deployment, with continued growth expected in further industries as the number of vehicles scaled.

The go-to-market strategy for Oxbotica and AppliedEV is to focus on markets that have immediate economic business cases, and a mature regulatory environment to enable deployment at scale.

The AppliedEV platform, Blanc Robot, is modular and fully flexible, designed to operate as a fully autonomous vehicle and configurable for specific applications, such as logistics or industrial. AppliedEV offers the Blanc Robot with an all-wheel-drive system, in either an off-road or on-road specification. Battery size is matched to the duty and charge cycles, with total efficiency up to 10 miles/kWh. This versatility is a perfect match for Oxbotica’s Universal Autonomy software platform.

Paul Newman, Founder & CTO of Oxbotica, said: “Working in collaboration with AppliedEV to provide the market with an autonomy solution comprising both hardware and software with the highest safety standards is a singular and unifying goal. We have an ambitious deployment goal over the coming years, driven by an extraordinary market appetite for a world-class product.”

Julian Broadbent, Founder & CEO of AppliedEV, said: “Oxbotica and AEV both see an opportunity in the market to come together with a unique offering of strong commercial outcomes as early as 12 months. The real value of automated vehicles is to operate without the presence of a driver with high levels of safety. There are not many instances where you will find full autonomous vehicles in the market doing a real job, with real economics. Removing the driver and passengers reduces the risk and creates new levels of value and service.”

Alex Harvey, Chief of Advanced Technology of Ocado Technology commented on the collaboration: “We are really excited and supportive of this collaboration between Oxbotica and AppliedEV as we see it as an important step on our journey to developing advanced autonomous mobility solutions for the Ocado Smart Platform.”

Nicky Godding

Nicky Godding is editor of The Business Magazine. Before her journalism career, she worked mainly in public relations moving into writing when she was invited to launch Retail Watch, a publication covering retail and real estate across Europe. After some years of constant travelling, she tucked away her passport and concentrated on business writing, co-founding a successful regional business magazine. She has interviewed some of the UK’s most successful entrepreneurs who have built multi-million-pound businesses and reported on many science and technology firsts. She reports on the region’s thriving business economy from start-ups, family businesses and multi-million-pound corporations, to the professionals that support their growth and the institutions that educate the next generation of business leaders.