A UK-based private taxi company, Addison Lee Group has announced a strategic partnership with self-driving software business Oxbotica.
In an announcement made by Addison Lee on Monday, the company said: “Both the companies will collaborate on the development, deployment, and operation of autonomous vehicles with a view to providing customers with self-driving services in London by 2021.”
“The partnership between the two companies will produce the digital maps of more than 250,000 miles of public road in and around London.”
Adding to this Addison Lee said that “The maps would record the position of every curb, road sign, landmark, and traffic lights to prepare for the deployment of autonomous vehicles.”
In a statement issued by, Andy Boland, CEO of Addison Lee Group has said: “Urban transport would change beyond recognition in the next decade with the introduction of the self-driving services.”
“Autonomous technology holds the key to many of the challenges we face in transportation,” Andy said.
Adding to this Andy said, “By providing ride-sharing services, we can help address congestion, free space used for parking and improve urban air quality through zero-emission vehicles.”
Whereas, Oxbotica CEO, Graeme Smith in a statement said: “This represents a huge leap towards bringing autonomous vehicles into mainstream use on the streets f London, and eventually in cities across the United Kingdom and beyond.”
“Our partnership with Addison Lee Group represents another milestone for the commercial deployment of our integrated autonomous vehicle and fleet management software systems in complex urban transport conditions,” He added.
A three-month trial of the vehicle is scheduled to begin by the end of 2018 on designated routes. RTA said the technology underscored its commitment to bolster the Dubai government’s strategy of transforming 25% of the emirate’s public transit journeys into autonomous circuits by 2030.
Addison Lee Group recently set up and led the MERGE Greenwich consortium, a government-funded project investigating how autonomous vehicle ride-sharing could be introduced to complement existing public transport services.
Using the London Borough of Greenwich as a model, the project found that by 2025, self-driving, ride-shared services could assist significantly with addressing the capital’s transport challenges and make it easier and more accessible for citizens to move around.
In parallel, Oxbotica is leading the DRIVEN consortium and has already launched a fleet of vehicles currently running autonomously in public trials in London and Oxford.