UK-led project will slash self-driving tech costs by 40%

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

Called Certus, the project will also aim to “significantly reduce the most risky, timely and costly part of the automotive design process” as well as increase the safety of these next-generation systems. This, Horiba MIRA says, will position the UK as a key player in the autonomous vehicle sector.

To do this, the project, which is set to conclude by 2025, aims to look at new ways to bring these technologies to market because 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 the advancement of self-driving tech on the back burner – the Ford- and VW-backed Argo AI being one of the biggest.

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

A report by management consulting firm McKinsey & Company found a third of development costs – up to £329 million – is spent on this alone to bring a level-four (no driver attention is required for safety) car. 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 part-publicly funded project aims to break this link between the growth in complexity of these systems and the speed and cost of verification.

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

The renowned 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 the real-world performance of these systems.”