Nissan is leading ADventure, a £3 million (about $4 million) UK government-backed research project to develop an autonomous passenger mobility service on public roads in Cambridge, UK, using a 2022 Nissan LEAF-based test car. Engineers at Nissan Technical Centre Europe will lead the ADventure project with WMG at the University of Warwick. The company says Cambridge will be the first real-world trial for a service it intends to replicate across the UK. According to Nissan, the project looks beyond vehicle technology to how an autonomous service operates in a real community, such as taking a person who doesn’t drive to a medical appointment.
Highlights
- £3 million (about $4 million) consortium project backed by the UK Department for Business, Innovation, Science and Trade (BIST)
- Three partners: Nissan, WMG at the University of Warwick, and PAVE UK (Partners for Automated Vehicle Education UK)
- Test vehicle: an existing 2022 Nissan LEAF-based test car used in previous UK research projects
- Endpoint: a public-road demonstration in Cambridge at the project’s conclusion
What Will the ADventure Project Study?
Nissan says the project will work with local authorities, commuters and residents to examine how autonomous driving technology can create social value, improve accessibility and address local transport challenges. The consortium will focus on three areas:
- Designing mobility services around cities and communities: understanding how autonomous mobility could complement existing transport networks and respond to local needs.
- Building passenger confidence: identifying what people need to feel informed, comfortable and included when using autonomous mobility services.
- Testing technology in real-world conditions: validating how autonomous driving systems perform on public roads.
David Moss, Senior Vice President, Research and Development, Nissan Africa, Middle East, India, Europe and Oceania (AMIEO), said:
“This project is an important step for autonomous mobility in the UK. With UK Government backing, it will take autonomous vehicle research beyond central London and into another city, helping us understand how these services can work for different communities and real-life journeys.
“By developing and applying Nissan’s in-house expertise, combined with the wider knowledge from our partners, we can delve further into how self-driving vehicles can improve connectivity, accessibility and quality of everyday life.”
Funding and Project Partners
BIST backs the project, and the Advanced Propulsion Centre UK (APC) facilitates it in partnership with Innovate UK and inward investment. The release positions the consortium as part of the UK’s effort to accelerate development and deployment of connected and autonomous mobility technologies.
Blair McDougall, Minister for Reindustrialisation at BIST, said:
“Britain’s autonomous vehicle sector is world-class, and our Modern Industrial Strategy is bringing business and science together to support the innovators shaping the future of transport.
“By backing cutting-edge technologies with the investment they need to scale up key projects, we are backing firms like Nissan to drive growth and create jobs in every part of the UK – reinforcing Britain’s leadership in this fast-growing industry.”
WMG will contribute safety and user-experience work to the service design. Professor Siddartha Khastgir, Head of Safe Autonomy at WMG, said:
“We are excited to be partnering with Nissan as they bring their autonomous mobility service plans to the UK.
“Applying our deep safety and user-experience expertise to the ADventure project, we will be able to co-create a safe mobility service design with the public in a way that meets both their needs and the city’s transport priorities.
“This remains a shared mission for all the partners, and reflects the real impact autonomous driving technology can have.”
Why Cambridge?
Nissan says Cambridge was selected through a scoping process because of its reputation for transport innovation and autonomous mobility research. The city has already hosted several autonomous driving initiatives, which the company says makes it a suitable place to explore how autonomous services could complement local transport networks.
Councilor Brian Milnes, Chair of the Greater Cambridge Partnership, said:
“We’re pleased to be supporting Nissan with their research project and helping them on their autonomous technology journey.
“Cambridge has already become one of the UK’s most exciting places to test autonomous transport and it’s now being recognised as a test-bed for ADventure.
“We’re looking forward to working with the project partners and building on the future of self-driving vehicles, particularly exploring the benefits to communities and boosting local transport.”
Test Vehicle and Prior Research
ADventure will use the existing 2022 LEAF-based test car, equipped with Nissan-developed autonomous driving technology, to evaluate passenger mobility needs and gather real-world data. Local communities will help researchers understand how autonomous services can improve connectivity and access to opportunities.
The project builds on Nissan’s earlier UK autonomous driving programs HumanDrive, ServCity and evolvAD. The company says these projects advanced its understanding of how the technology performs across different driving scenarios. Nissan also presents ADventure as part of its broader Vision plan to turn vehicle technology into mobility services people use every day.
The project will conclude with a public-road demonstration in Cambridge.
