Meridian, the Intelligent Mobility Accelerator, has been officially launched at Cenex-LCV 2017, the low carbon vehicle show held in Bedfordshire in the UK, as the organizations look to support further innovation in the development of connected and autonomous vehicles (CAV) across the country.
Meridian, which is a collaboration between the CCAV, the Automotive Council and the Advanced Propulsion Center, will bring together established organizations from different industries to provide technical and financial support, testing, development and adoption of CAVs.
In bringing together OEMs and SMEs, the initiative will look to encourage cross-sector collaboration to pitch CAV innovations and visions in exchange for technical and financial support.
Thanks to the existing testing facilities, proving grounds and the connected public corridor, as well as previous initiatives, Meridian aims to enable the UK to become globally competitive, and attract further foreign investment.
Jim Campbell, launch director at Meridian, said, “In order for CAVs to be fully adopted they need to function seamlessly on all roads. For this to happen, we need all industries, and government, to work together on the same technologies and the same standards.
“Meridian will give the UK the power to innovate CAV technology faster and more decisively than ever before, creating a testbed of facilities throughout the UK. This UK-wide operation will enable the UK to become globally competitive in CAV technology and open up new opportunities in the supply chain.”
In addition to strengthening existing capabilities and creating new ones, Meridian will look to share best practice between academia and industry.
September 13, 2017