Push to make UK a leader in autonomous car development

A new project led by UK-based firm Horiba MIRA aims to reduce the cost of testing autonomous vehicles by 40%, allowing the automotive industry to push towards cheaper self-driving vehicles as it stumbles over high development fees. 

Called Certus, the partially government-funded project is set to conclude by 2025. It intends to “significantly reduce the most risky, timely and costly part of the design process” and to increase the safety of autonomous systems. 

This, claimed Horiba MIRA, will position the UK as a key player in the autonomous vehicle sector. Another objective is to find new ways to commercialise these technologies, as traditional engineering approaches “are unable to deliver market-ready solutions in commercially viable timelines”. 

This has been shown recently by some global car makers putting self-driving tech on the back burner, the Ford– and Volkswagen-backed Argo AI programme being one of the most high-profile cases. 

One major issue that the project – backed by Polestar, IPG Automotive, Connected Places Catapult and Coventry University – wants to solve is the high cost of verifying these automated systems as fit for use on public roads. 

A report by consulting firm McKinsey & Company found a third of development costs – up to £329 million – is spent on verification processes alone to bring a car with level-four capability (meaning no driver attention is needed) to market. 

For more complex vehicles, such as a level-four robotaxi, equivalent testing could cost £1.3 billion and account for 50% of the overall development costs. 

The project aims to break the link between the growth in complexity of autonomous systems and the speed and cost of verifying them. 

Horiba MIRA will design the “most efficient way” to evaluate these systems, including a mixed-reality platform that will combine physical testing and virtual scenario modelling. 

The engineering firm’s managing director, Declan Allen, said: “Certus delivers an approach that will not just save car makers money but will also accelerate the deployment of automated driving technology, aiding regulators, insurers and consumers with the adoption of these technologies. 

“It aims to revolutionise how the increasing array of automated driving technologies are tested and validated for the market by vehicle manufacturers, helping to build confidence in [their] real-world performance.”