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London’s GATEway Automated Transportation Project Begins Testing in Greenwich

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London Heathrow Airport UltraPODs Shuttle

The GATEway Project’s driverless pods will begin testing in Greenwich soon

Earlier this year, the GATEway Project, which will provide driverless transportation to volunteers to gauge the public’s thoughts on driverless cars, announced its plan to test its automated transportation in Greenwich. Well, the time is here—the project has officially ready to start its first open public trials.


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The public trials are set to begin in Greenwich later this year. This London borough was chosen because of its abundance of pedestrians and cyclists. The project will interview participants before and after the driverless journey, which allows the project to gauge the reaction of the public to this new technology.

The GATEway Project is using special pods, which are already being used at Heathrow Airport, to shuffle humans around London without a driver. At Heathrow, these pods are fully electric and called Ultra Pods. They run on tracks to transport travelers across the airport, which allows them to quickly meet connecting flights. A partnership between the Transport Research Laboratory, Westfield Sportscars, and Oxbotica—a branch of Oxford University’s Robotics Group—is helping get these Ultra Pods off the airport tracks and onto the open road.


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“It gives the public a chance to experience what it’s like to ride in an automated vehicle and to make their own mind up as to how much they like it, trust it, and could accept it as a service in the city,” said Nick Reed, director of Transport Research Laboratory.

If you want to join the public trial phase in Greenwich, you can apply online and become one of the first people to experience driverless technology.

News Source: Digital Trends