Greater Cambridge has secured £3.88 million of grant funding provided by the UK Government to take its pioneering self-driving bus programme to the next stage, bringing autonomous public transport a major step closer.

The funding will allow the Greater Cambridge Partnership (GCP) and its partners to build on the success of the Connector programme and test how self-driving buses can move from trial projects to real-world public transport services.

There are already self-driving Connector buses operating on routes serving Cambridge West and Eddington, and the Cambridge Biomedical Campus. The funding boost will allow these trials to be extended, helping to gather further evidence about how self-driving buses can be rolled out, the customer experience, ticketing and how safety and accessibility can be ensured.

Part of this work will look at how self-driving buses could be used on Cambridgeshire’s planned busways, with a trial set to take place on the southern section of the Guided Busway this year.

The project, called Commercialising Connector, has been awarded £3.88 million through Innovate UK’s Connected and Automated Mobility (CAM) Pathfinder programme. CAM Pathfinder is funded by UK Government, delivered by the Department for Business, Innovation, Science and Trade in partnership with Zenzic and Innovate UK. 

Cllr Brian Milnes, Chair of the Greater Cambridge Partnership, said: “Cambridge has already become one of the UK’s most exciting places to test autonomous transport.

“This funding gives us the opportunity to go further and explore how these services could be introduced at scale. It’s about turning innovative technology into something that could genuinely benefit residents, businesses and visitors in the years ahead.”

If successful, the programme could provide the blueprint for future self-driving bus services in Cambridge and other towns and cities across the UK.

 

Note to Editors:

  • Connector has carried more than 4,000 passengers across both routes
  • For more information on Connector visit our website.

ENDS