V-CAL
V-CAL project scales autonomous logistics with zero-emission HGVs on real-world routes, enhancing UK growth and reducing costs.
Lead Organisation
North East Automotive Alliance
URL
northeastautomotivealliance.com/neaa-projects/v-cal/
Theme
Deployments
About the project
The V-CAL project, based in Sunderland, has been awarded £4 million from the government’s £42 million Commercialising Connected and Automated Mobility (CAM) competition through the Centre for Connected and Autonomous Vehicles (CCAV).
V-CAL will build upon the Department for Digital Culture Media & Sport (DCMS) funded 5G CAL project, which delivered a working proof-of-concept (PoC) demonstration of the autonomous and teleoperation of a 40-tonne truck, with live loads delivered from Vantec to Nissan Motor Manufacturing UK (NMUK) fully autonomously without intervention by a safety driver.
The project will scale the deployment on the initial PoC into actual operational conditions and also expand into alternative, more complex routes, which build scale, reliability, and consistency of operation. It will run up to four zero-emission autonomous HGVs around the Nissan Sunderland site, on a private roads, where the vehicles will navigate traffic lights, roundabouts, and other road users – a significant step towards deploying the technology on public roads.
Project Partners
- North East AutomotiveAlliance
- Vantec
- Nissan Motor Manufacturing UK
- StreetDrone
- Nokia
- Newcastle University
- Angoka
- BP
- Womble Bond Dickinson (UK) LLP