Midlands Future Mobility Testbed
Transport for West Midlands is currently working to create one of the world’s most advanced environments for autonomous vehicle testing.
As the home of the UK’s automotive industry and the Government’s official Future Mobility Zone, the West Midlands needs to have the cutting-edge facilities to ensure that it remains a global player in the future automotive world.
Midlands Future Mobility is more than just a testing ground. It will consist of the following elements:
- A network of over 300 km of roads in Coventry, Birmingham, and Solihull and the wider West Midlands Region.
- Covering the most diverse range of roads, junctions and traffic measures in the world, it will also include the University of Warwick campus – a miniature city in itself.
- 5G ready and with smart monitoring systems, vehicles will be connected via high-speed, high-capacity wireless infrastructure across the whole route, ensuring no loss of signal.
Engineering and professional services consultancy, WSP has already carried out the feasibility study and design phases for the project. The first delivery phase will include installing roadside units to enable communication with CAV services on vehicles. Other technologies to be rolled out include hi-tech weather stations, live cameras and GNSS correction towers to provide high accuracy positioning for vehicles using GPS data.
The tender invitation has been submitted, and TfWM will soon appoint a construction partner for the delivery and commissioning stages of the CAV facility.