A company has launched a project that has seen self-driving cars take to the roads in Oxford.

‘Project Endeavour’ is a research and development project backed by the government which has been produced by Oxbotica, who specialise in autonomous software. 

One of the aims for the project is to prepare communities and local authorities with the prospective unveiling and deployment of driverless cars on our roads in the future. The trials will explore the development of a new scheme that will ensure similar research projects like this to take place, with consortium partners such as the Transport Research Laboratory aiding ‘Project Endeavour’.

The trials, which will be run day and night and until Autumn 2021, will put the self-driving cars through a number of different traffic scenarios during a round-trip from Oxford’s Parkway station to the city’s main train station.

“Trials of Level 4 vehicles are an important milestone, keeping the UK at the head of the field in bringing the benefits of this technology into mainstream use, said Camilla Fowler, Head of Automation at TRL.

A Level 4 vehicle can operate itself without a driver, whilst a Level 0 car has no automation. This is a scale developed by the Society of Autonomous Engineers (SAE) that determines how high or low the levels of autonomy in a vehicle are. 

Fowler added, “These exciting trials, and what we learn about assuring safety and encouraging interoperability will open up new opportunities for many more research demonstrations across the UK, which are the forerunners to the full-scale public trials so eagerly awaited.”