Self-driving vehicles are a significant step closer to becoming a reality on public roads with the construction of a ‘revolutionary’ new ecosystem nearing completion in the Midlands.

Set to provide the UK with the most complete environment for the acceleration of future mobility, the new, globally-unique autonomous vehicle development centre in Nuneaton – known as ASSURED CAV – has been developed by leaders in automotive engineering, Horiba MIRA.

It has been specifically designed to enable the automotive industry, policy makers and government to develop autonomous vehicle technology, ensuring it is robust to the wide range of eventualities seen on public roads, before being released to consumers.

Horiba MIRA describes the centre as “far more than just a location for vehicle testing, ASSURED CAV is a lighthouse in the CAV (connected and autonomous vehicles) industry; a location where organisations can lead in both the development and verification of self-driving technologies, but also where the learning can be applied to influence future legislation, policy and insurance, to ensure the future of autonomous vehicles will improve lives”.

Declan Allen, Horiba MIRA managing director, said: “We have been on a journey to create ASSURED CAV; it represents many years of intense research and investment to bring together one of the most comprehensive CAV validation ecosystems in the world.

“At a time when the automotive industry is facing significant headwinds, we have been steadfast in our approach to delivering this investment and we are extremely proud to provide an ecosystem which will allow the automotive industry, as well as complementary industries, to develop and prove their self-driving technology.

“This is a unique opportunity for companies to accelerate their activities to lead the industry – it will allow companies to bring forward their activities in this sector in an efficient and optimised manner, enabling them to solve the real-world problems of integrating their automated products into the public roads, while also importantly achieving consumer acceptance.”

Chris Reeves, Horiba MIRA head of CAV technologies, said: “ASSURED CAV demonstrates that Horiba MIRA is again at the forefront of government and industry’s collaborative approach to ensuring the UK is the best place in the world to develop and deploy the technologies.

“Although we have seen huge strides made in CAV technologies in recent years, the overriding challenge for the industry is giving consumers confidence that CAVs are safe enough to be on our roads. Our new ASSURED CAV ecosystem does just that and is a significant milestone in helping CAV developers bring their vehicles to market.

“Not only will ASSURED CAV help to ensure a seamless development process, it will also foster the innovations and cross-industry partnerships needed to speed up the self-driving revolution and realise the huge economic and societal benefits it will bring.”