Accelerating the Deployment and Adoption of Automated Vehicles: Our Role in Project Endeavour

Project Endeavour exists to accelerate the deployment and adoption of autonomous vehicles, changing the conversation from “we want to do it in the future” to “let’s do it today”.

Running to Autumn 2021, Project Endeavour is led by Oxbotica, alongside DG Cities and Immense as partners, each with globally recognised domain expertise. The consortium has also recently welcomed three new consortium partners: TRL, the British Standards Institution (BSI) and Oxfordshire County Council.

To change the conversation about autonomous vehicles, we must make it relevant to everyone’s needs. That is why we have structured this project differently, with advanced simulations at the heart of bringing a future of mobility mindset into the real world. The value of Immense’s simulation platform is to understand the impact of new AV services to all. This is achieved by evaluating and validating the pilot, scale-up and transfer phases of automated vehicle service trials across multiple locations.

Whilst our role in the project primarily focuses on evaluating service operations, we have a wider responsibility to ensure that the technology and services are suitable for a broader number of use cases, enabling us to rapidly adapt to the most high-priority markets and societal needs.

Watch the video below to see our role in Endeavour:

Evaluating AV Service Operation

As AV operators test their services in new cities, it is important to assess the potential future impact of scaling up or transferring to a new city.

Immense’s platform will be used to:

• Extrapolate real-world pilot data to a 24hr agent-based transport model
• Undertake ‘what-if?’ experiments to evaluate service performance
• Assess the potential impact of alternative operating policies
• Measure service KPIs including passenger experience and fleet utilisation
• Simulate dynamic service networks for Oxford, London, and other cities

These activities will enable the consortium to evaluate commercialisation criteria and make recommendations to stakeholders. This forms part of the service playbook that can be scaled, developed and deployed across multiple geographies.

Ensuring Product Suitability

The world has changed significantly since the conception of this project, so we are engaging heavily with the wider global market to ensure that our use case capability remains relevant for the reshaped focus of the industry following COVID-19.

As both automated vehicles and fleet simulation are applicable to many use cases, we have a goal to deliver a globally scalable commercial simulation platform suitable for the evolving needs of mobility systems and decision-makers.

Whilst there is no single service provider engaged in the programme, we have a unique opportunity to ensure that our productised offering is fit-for-purpose across several service offerings.

Providing Adaptable Simulation Environments

Once market research is complete, we can adapt our core product to identified high-priority markets and societal needs. It is designed to be exploratory and not restricted to passenger transportation. It will consider everything from logistics and home delivery, to key worker transportation, social care, medical transportation, and emergency response.

Keep an eye out for project updates and insights

Over the next 12 months, our trial results and commercialisation insights will become available, enabling us to accelerate the uptake of autonomous vehicles, fulfilling the Endeavour goal to change the narrative from “we want to do it in the future” to “let’s do it today”.

Want to use the Immense platform?

The mobility simulation platform is accessed through the Immense website (www.immense.ai) and available on subscription to a global user base. Get access today by emailing collaborate@immense.ai