Arrival van completes autonomous driving demonstration in UK

The all-electric Arrival Van has completed a live autonomous driving demonstration at a fully functioning parcel depot in the UK. The company will now begin testing its autonomous driving capabilities on public roads.

It was the first time an Arrival Van has manoeuvred around a facility without a human driver behind the wheel. The vehicle was able to autonomously complete all operations that are performed on a daily basis by a commercial fleet driver. The technology used is intended to improve safety and efficiency.

Arrival has been developing its autonomous driving functionality for the Arrival Van as part of Robopilot, a project designed to improve the market knowledge, functionality and public perception of autonomous driving systems. The technology then can be adapted for the planned rollout of all Arrival Vehicles including the Arrival Bus and Arrival Car.

Robopilot is part-funded by the UK government through Innovate UK and the Centre for Connected Autonomous Vehicles.

“At Arrival, we are building supplementary technologies that will help drivers. Depot manoeuvres are the most accident-prone parts of a worker’s shift and with our technology, we hope to introduce greater safety by removing human driving errors happening in confined environments,” said Max Kumskoy, Head of Advanced Driver Assistance and Automated Driving Systems, Arrival.

The next step is to begin testing autonomous driving functionalities on public roads in the UK. Arrival’s aim is for the application to be used in Arrival Vans across the globe.

A few weeks ago, LeasePlan announced an agreement with Arrival, making it its preferred leasing partner.

Photo copyright: Arrival