Driverless shuttle buses will be operating in Milton Keynes by next year, council announces

A revolutionary new self-driving shuttle bus service will up be and running inMilton Keynesnext year, it has been announced.

Milton Keynes City Council and its partners have successfully secured almost £2m in grant funding to deliver new state of the art services into the city by October 2024.

It will be called the StreetCAV project, with CAV standing for ‘connected and autonomous vehicles’.

The vehicles will vary from one-seaters up to larger units similar in size to a bus. The routes they will cover have not yet been announced but it is expected they will focus around the city centre and the rail station at first.

The project will install the connectivity and other infrastructure necessary for self-driving shuttles that seat multiple passengers, as well as robotic and drone-based services to operate safely.

MK City Council has teamed up with Smart City Consultancy and other partners to deliver the scheme, which will be used to trial the technology before consideration is given to rolling it out across the country.

The funding secured in Milton Keynes comes from a wider pot of £18.5 million in government funding being made available to projects that will strengthen the UK’s automated supply chain.

Council leader Pete Marland said: “Milton Keynes really is the home of innovation and we’re committed to exploring new forms of sustainable transport so local people can benefit, as well as helping other cities around the world learn how to be greener places to live and work.

"Demand-responsive, autonomous vehicles can help to reduce congestion, and create a cleaner environment so it’s a really exciting trial to lead on. Additionally, attracting global organisations to test these ideas in Milton Keynes also provides potential for new high-tech, high-skill jobs.”

Ian Pulford, Director of Smart City Consultancy, said: "We are passionate about delivering new innovations that offer opportunities to drive adoption and up-take of new autonomous services, creating jobs and delivering highly differentiated experiences for the travelling public.

"The StreetCAV project is designed to do just that, and our job is to ensure not only the project delivers, but that the things we achieve live on into the future, not only in Milton Keynes, but for the benefit of the UK at large.”