Supported by Nissan and the UK Government, ServCity project comes to an end, after 3 years of research and more than 1,600 kilometers of autonomous driving tests. The aim of this project was to develop a plan to help UK cities integrate advanced autonomous transport technologies into urban infrastructure.

“We are extremely proud to be part of the ServCity project and our 100% electric Nissan Leaf proved to be the perfect test vehicle. As part of our long-term vision, Nissan Ambition 2030, we aim to promote greater access to safe and exciting mobility. Developing our skills and experience in autonomous driving is important in this regard, and research projects such as ServCity are essential to the development of the technology.”said David Moss, Senior Vice President of Research and Development, Nissan AMIEO (Africa, Middle East, India, Europe and Oceania).

ServCity: development of autonomous driving in cities

ServCity is an initiative funded by the UK Government, including a £100 million public fund (approx. 113 million euros) to develop intelligent mobility, is managed by the Center for Connected and Autonomous Vehicles (CCAV) and implemented by Innovate UK, the UK’s innovation agency.

For three years, six partners (Nissan, Connected Places Catapult, TRL, Hitachi Europe, University of Nottingham and SBD Automotive) have worked together to develop a master plan that will enable OEMs, transport services and urban planners make it possible to welcome autonomous vehicles in cities British

The project that mobilized more than 115 people and almost 16,000 working daysalso studied how cities can offer a “Robotaxis” service that will make life easier for residents and visitors.

Nissan Leaf: autonomous and connected prototype

For the needs of the ServCity project, the Japanese manufacturer developed prototypes Nissan Leaf is 100% electric and autonomous, connected to the Smart Mobility Living Lab (SMLL) in Greenwich. They were successfully tested on the streets of London with increasingly difficult restrictions.

ServCity was able to take advantage of cooperative infrastructure with a network of road sensors that communicate with the vehicle. The infrastructure can, for example, detect an object that is not in the vehicle’s line of sight and notify it so that it can behave accordingly by changing lanes. The goal is to provide traffic flowas well as the safety of everyone on the road.

This project, like all other autonomous vehicle development projects funded by the British government, aims to ensure the safety of autonomous vehicles on UK roads and will bring real benefit to society. The latest phase of the project has allowed several people to take part in a series of demonstrations to experience these new autonomous and connected driving technologies on the streets of Greenwich.