XL Catlin to participate in 30-month autonomous vehicle trial

The project, Driven, will explore the cyber security and data protection issues concerning connected and driverless vehicles.

XL Catlin’s main incentive for getting involved in the programme is to use the findings as a risk profiling tool for its clients, said Richard Jinks, who leads the project at XL Catlin. 

“Our involvement will help us identify what a good autonomous risk is,” he told Post.

“Oxbotica is sharing the data that their autonomous vehicles are creating in order to enable us to assess risk, find out where they might lie and see how we can manage those. This will allow us to support our clients who will adopt this technology.”

The fleet of autonomous vehicles will be deployed in urban areas and on motorways and each vehicle will operate and level 4 autonomy which means they will not be occupied by a driver.

As well as Transport for London and XL Catlin, the consortium of partners includes Oxford Robotics Institute, Telefonica O2 UK, TRL, the UK Atomic Energy Authority’s Race.

Graeme Smith, CEO Oxbotica, said: “We are seeking to address some of the most fundamental challenges preventing the future commercial deployment of fully autonomous vehicles.”

The consortium will benefit from a £8.6m grant that was awarded by the Centre for Connected and Autonomous Vehicles and delivered through Innovate UK.

The 30-month project will address challenges such as insurance modelling for connected and autonomous vehicles, communication and data sharing between connected vehicles, risk profiling and cybersecurity challenges data sharing will bring.

Professor Paul Newman, head of the Oxford Robotics Institute, and one of Oxbotica’s founders, said: “Driven is the first of its kind and brings a host of new questions surrounding the way these vehicles will communicate with each other. We’re moving from the singleton autonomous vehicle, to fleets of autonomous vehicles. What is interesting to us is what data the vehicles share with one another, when, and why.”