- Let The Electric Passenger Shuttles Currently In Use At Heathrow Airport.
Greenwich is one of four places in the UK where driverless pods and public reaction to them are being tested.
Trials will also take place in Bristol, Coventry and Milton Keynes. The £8m project is jointly funded by government agency Innovate UK and industry.
The Greenwich Automated Transport Environment project - or Gateway - will see seven driverless pods tested on the pavements around the Greenwich Peninsula, where the O2 Arena is based, from July.
Routes are still being worked out but are likely to include residential areas, the North Greenwich underground station and businesses around the arena.
The so-called UltraPods currently in service at Heathrow carry passengers between the car park and Terminal 5. In the five years they have been in use, they have carried 1.5 million passengers and travelled 1.8 million miles (three million kilometres).Westfield Sportscars, a British car maker, will be responsible for manufacturing and testing of the pods. Heathrow Enterprise will design the software while a third British firm, Oxbotica, will provide mapping and other sensors to ensure the vehicles are safe.https://www.igilarity.blogsport.com
The pods will have three months of testing, first with invited users and then with the general public. Each pod can carry six passengers but will require a steward to be present at all times to press the emergency button in the case of a problem.
The trial of the pods will reveal a wealth of data, Prof Nick Reed, academy director at Transport Research Laboratory which is leading the project, told the BBC.
"It will tell us whether people trust and accept these vehicles and how they would work as part of the urban landscape," he said.
"This vehicle has millions of miles under its belt and now we have to take it outside of the track and modify it for use on pavements."
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