AutoTaxi - Introduction

Collision avoidance and related technologies have been the subject of worldwide research for many years, under EC (Prometheus, ADASE), US (PATH) and recent Japanese programmes. This work has led to a series of advances, many of which have been demonstrated in practice under test conditions. Systems such as ACC are now available and being used on UK highways. TRW has recently announced that it has been selected by the Volkswagen group for ACC supply for several of its new platforms.

However all applications to date are limited to providing driver assistance. Although in many applications this can provide an important new capability, present achievements are far from meeting the original goal of fully autonomous driving. Under the Urban Transport beacon project, fully autonomous vehicles are a requirement for an effective system. Such vehicles can operate on their own guideway network, such as ULTra1 thus providing a far simpler environment than vehicles on the present road network (Figure 1).

With these objectives in mind a consortium has been formed to participate in the Autotaxi project to develop a safety critical sensor system for autonomous driving. The project is part of the Foresight Vehicle Link Programme, a UK initiative focused on developing technologies for use in mass-market vehicles by 2020.

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