Another month has flown by here at DG Cities and we’ve been keeping ourselves busy with preparation for autonomous vehicle trials as well as welcoming a new member to the team!
Project Endeavour has officially arrived in Greenwich! After the second round of trials wrapped up in Birmingham earlier this summer, we were happy to welcome the operation to our neck of the woods. It’s been an exciting (albeit unusual) experience to finally work with our consortium partners face-to-face, rather than through the laptop screen we’ve become so accustomed to this past year.
Perhaps most exciting of all is that this is the first of Project Endeavour’s trials that will be open to members of the public! We've gone to great lengths to ensure it will be a covid-safe process, which means that participants can focus on the fun part: riding in an autonomous vehicle around the Borough. Learn more about the project and trials here.
It’s been a delight to watch our team grow this month as we welcomed Mark Pearson on board, who is on secondment from Ofcom. Keep an eye out on the blog in the coming weeks for his introductory post to learn more about Mark and the work he’ll be doing at DG Cities! Later this month the team will be expanding further, when our exceptional new Electric Vehicle Infrastructure Specialist - Ashleigh Burton - joins us.
Another highlight of July was the overwhelming success of the virtual reality (VR) experience we designed for Project Endeavour. This VR activity is a chance for anyone in the UK to get a taste of what it’s like to sit inside an autonomous vehicle - all without leaving the comfort of the house. We had over 2,000 participants sign up throughout the month, and they will now receive a free cardboard VR headset in the mail. Their insights will contribute to our growing body of research to help us design future AV services that work for everyone. We were delighted by the public’s enthusiasm for this and we can’t wait to see how they find it!
So, that’s all for this month. We’ve got a busy August ahead, but we’re excited to finally engage with the public face-to-face. Having real-life discussions and interactions with residents has always been a cornerstone of our ethos at DG Cities and we are so excited to get back to doing what we love. We hope to see you there.