South East: Ordnance Survey leads consortium to become world leader in driverless cars

A new consortium of leading UK businesses, led by Southampton-based Ordnance Survey, has secured funding of £20 million from the Government’s Innovate UK to examine the data requirements needed to support autonomous navigation.

The ground-breaking “Atlas” initiative, which is due to commence in May 2016, will study data critical to the efficient operation of autonomous vehicles and how their development could be enhanced. It is likely to consolidate the UK’s position as a leader in the development of connected and autonomous vehicles.

Testing the feasibility of maintaining, processing and distributing this data is a core element of the project. If Atlas is successful, it could lead to a more rapid take-up of connected and autonomous vehicles, and consolidate the UK’s position as a global leader in innovative driverless-car technologies.

The consortium is made up of Ordnance Survey, Satellite Applications Catapult, the Transport Research Laboratory (TRL), Sony Europe, the Royal Borough of Greenwich and two leading UK specialist SMEs in autonomous and navigation systems (GOBOTIX and OxTS).  It is one of a number of projects, recently announced by Sajid Javid, secretary of state for business, innovation and skills, and it will benefit from £20m government investment in researching and developing communication between vehicles and the roadside infrastructure. 

OxTS, a leading worldwide supplier of GNSS-aided inertial navigation systems to the automotive industry, is based just north of Oxford.

Following the announcement, Jeremy Morley, Ordnance Survey’s chief geospatial scientist, stressed the strength of the consortium and the potential benefits from the Atlas project: “Autonomous vehicles will need to find their way reliably and safely through a vast network of streets while interacting with driven and other autonomous vehicles. Imagine sections of road, other than motorways, equipped with beacons using the potential of 5G technology and geospatial accuracy to sense ‘unexpected objects’ (particularly children and animals), which might unwittingly stray into the path of an oncoming autonomous vehicle. Imagine too, engines in autonomous cars able to adjust a car’s tyre pressures to changing road-surface conditions. We’re already seeing developments along these and many other lines.”   

Stuart Martin, CEO of the Satellite Applications Catapult, based at Harwell, said: “We're delighted to be supporting Atlas. As part of the Government's investment in connected and autonomous vehicles, we're hugely encouraged by the value placed on ensuring robust and resilient satellite data – a fundamental part of a successful data-driven programme. This will provide end-users with the assurance and confidence they require that data access, discovery and retrieval is managed securely by all associated parties.”