Horiba MIRA and Coventry University are celebrating three years since the launch of the Centre for Connected and Autonomous Automotive Research (CCAAR), with the landmark partnership supporting some of the UK’s most high-profile projects.
Dedicated to developing intelligent, connected vehicle technology, the facility in the automotive research center at the MIRA Technology Park in Nuneaton, UK, was built to provide an environment to simulate, test and evaluate the security and safety of CAVs.
Since opening, some of UK’s largest CAV projects have been supported by the partnership, including Trusted Autonomous Parking (Park-IT) – an initiative to develop a multi-storey car park, on-road parking bays, and parking lot environments within Horiba MIRA’s CAV urban driving environment. The partnership is currently supporting the Trusted Intelligent Connected Autonomous Vehicle consortium (TIC-IT).
Both projects are part of Testbed UK led by the Centre for Connected and Autonomous Vehicles (CCAV) and Zenzic, a UK consortium of industry, government and academia.
Anthony Baxendale, head of horizon scanning and CCAAR lead at Horiba MIRA, said, “We are very proud of everything CCAAR has achieved over the last three years, supporting in the government’s strategy to establish the UK as a global leader in the development, testing and commercialization of CAVs. The new center has rapidly expanded the scope of the engineering and test services we offer our customers within the CAV industry, and we have seen our efforts make a real difference in helping to plug the prominent skills gap faced by the industry. I look forward to seeing how this successful partnership with Coventry University will continue to shape this fast-evolving segment in the years ahead.”
Kevin Vincent, operations manager at the Institute for Future Transport and Cities at Coventry University, commented, “We launched CCAAR as part of a multimillion-pound investment in teaching, research and development within the transport sector. We are delighted to see that this investment is paying off, with the center driving high-quality, high-impact research that is underpinning some of UK’s most ambitious projects into the development of connected and autonomous vehicle technology.
“We are also proud to see first-hand the real-world contribution our talented and hard-working students are having, not only on the automotive industry, but on wider society as a whole. We are really excited about the future potential of our partnership with Horiba MIRA.”
Part of CCAAR’s remit is to plug the ongoing industry skills gap by nurturing the next generation of engineers to support rapid growth in this automotive area. To date, the CCAAR hub has seen three students complete their PhDs, with two of the graduates now employed at Horiba MIRA, and a further eight doctoral students currently in the program. Under the Institute for Future Transport, the center is also tasked with producing vital research in accelerating the deployment of new CAV products and services.
