Burges Salmon is the legal partner supporting the AECOM-led CAPRI consortium, which secured more than £4.2 million funding from Innovate UK and the Centre for Connected and Autonomous Vehicles (CCAV).
The pilot scheme is part a number of CAV2 projects given funding by the government and could pave the way for the use of connected and autonomous vehicles to move people around airports, hospitals, business parks, shopping and tourist centres. The project includes the design, development and testing of new autonomous and connected pods on-demand (PODs), culminating in on-road public trials at London’s Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park.
Comprising 20 partnering organisations, the AECOM-led CAPRI consortium brings together academic institutions, businesses, SMEs and public sector authorities with a range of skills, knowledge and requirements in the connected and autonomous vehicles (CAVs) arena. The project will include the development of the next generation of PODs, as well as the systems and technologies that will allow the vehicles to navigate safely and seamlessly in both pedestrian and road environments.
Burges Salmon will be providing its legal expertise to support to the development of a POD solution covering technical, operational, legal and other aspects.
The CAPRI consortium was awarded the funding as part of a CCAV and Innovate UK competition to invest £35 million in industry-led research and development projects on CAVs. The aim of the competition was to find projects that would deliver technical solutions for CAVs that provide real-world benefits to users and where the commercial benefit is clear.
The Burges Salmon team will include Chris Jackson, Edward Barratt, Lucy Pegler and Brian Wong.
Chris Jackson, Head of Transport at Burges Salmon, comments: “It is an exciting time to be involved in one of the leading government-backed projects to explore and develop revolutionary low carbon vehicles and driverless technologies. We look forward to working with the CAPRI consortium and providing our legal expertise into connected and autonomous vehicles.”