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Addison Lee Reveals One in Three London Car Journeys Could Be in an Autonomous Vehicle By 2025LONDON, October 12, 2017 /PRNewswire/ --
Autonomous ride-sharing services could account for a third of all trips by private drivers in London by 2025, according to a consortium investigating ways to integrate new technology into the city's public transport network. Experts predict that 34 per cent of private drivers' journeys could be replaced, while up to 30 per cent of taxi and private hire journeys could also be served by Autonomous Vehicle (AV) ride-sharing. The figures - extrapolated from studies carried out in Los Angeles and Boston, together with the London Travel Demand Survey - are contained in initial research from the MERGE Greenwich consortium, a group of six partners undertaking a year-long project to study how autonomous vehicle ride-sharing can work and connect with London's transport network. The consortium is backed by funding from Innovate UK - an agency sponsored by the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy. Overall, an AV ride-sharing service could serve up to one in seven of all trips within London within eight years, equivalent to 2.5m trips per day, and take up to 25 per cent of the total transport market by value - worth around £3.5bn at today's rates. "The idea that one-in-three London car journeys could be replaced by autonomous vehicles by 2025 shows the huge potential in the sector," said Andy Boland, Addison Lee's CEO. The MERGE Greenwich consortium is led by Addison Lee Group and involves mobility experts Ford, TRL, Transport Systems Catapult, DG Cities and Immense Simulations. Paul McCabe, Addison Lee Group's Director of Mobility, said: "With some of the brightest British automotive and ground transport brains involved, the MERGE Greenwich partnership will pave the way for autonomous vehicles on the streets of London at scale, to provide significantly improved transport. "This will put London at the forefront of mobility development, globally." It comes as an exciting future of autonomous cars on British roads moves a step closer with the Addison Lee-led MERGE Greenwich consortium securing funding from the Government's national innovation agency to help take the country to the forefront of mobility innovation. London Mayor Sadiq Khan has also put the need to reduce the number of cars on the capital's roads at the heart of his transport strategy. So, what exactly will the project deliver?
Trevor Dorling, Director of DG Cities explained: "With the advent of connected and autonomous vehicles, there is now an opportunity to redefine transport in our cities and towns. Offering modern, flexible and responsive mobility services that can be shared by the public is likely to reduce the cost to the consumer, reduce the number of journeys and vehicles on our roads - helping the environment and improving road safety. DG Cities looks forward to being a part of this project and sharing the key lessons learnt with other cities in the UK and overseas." Innovate UK's Chief Executive Ruth McKernan added: "Successful industry-led R&D projects will further spearhead UK development of low emission, and connected and autonomous vehicle technology. This builds on our world-leading research and innovation capability in this area and the significant strength of UK businesses both large and small in this field." The consortium partners bring a crucial and complementary set of assets and knowledge to the MERGE Greenwich programme:
Anticipated uptake of Autonomous vehicle ride-sharing[1] Estimated AV Forecast AV Potential value of ride-share Market ride-share trips per the AV ride-share Year 2024/25 penetration (2025) day (2025) market (2025) Underground/ DLR 5% 109,646 GBP116,060,694 Bus/tram 5% 159,796 GBP87,488,571 Taxi/ Other 30% 100,856 GBP865,094,976 Car driver 34% 1,369,603 GBP1,895,591,907 Car passenger 34% 771,004 GBP559,352,079 Motorcycle 5% 3,234 GBP3,134,520 Cycle 0.5% 3,904 GBP1,002,384 Walk 0.5% 29,580 GBP1,483,054 TOTAL 14% 2,547,623 GBP3,529,208,186 About MERGE Greenwich MERGE Greenwich is a project to investigate how to improve the way we travel around cities, reduce total vehicle journeys and reduce emissions, using new and future developments in electric and autonomous vehicles. The project will focus on the social, commercial and infrastructure challenge of autonomous vehicles, and will consider safety, ride-sharing, security, accessibility and environmental factors of an autonomous ground transport service. The MERGE Greenwich consortium will simulate the way the Royal Borough of Greenwich moves today and how it could move with an autonomous ride-share system which is integrated with public transport. Consumer and city-level research will also be carried out in order to understand how this new mobility system could be applied to the real world. The resulting report will provide a blueprint for an optimal operating model, to give the UK a first-to-market global advantage in next generation ground transportation systems. The 12-month project will be delivered by a consortium led by Addison Lee Group, and will use the London Borough of Greenwich to model, test and assess options. The consortium's membership comprises of:
About Innovate UK Innovate UK is the UK's innovation agency. Innovate UK works with people, companies and partner organisations to find and drive the science and technology innovations that will grow the UK economy - delivering productivity, new jobs and exports. Our aim at Innovate UK is to keep the UK globally competitive in the race for future prosperity. 1. Data extrapolated from TfL London Travel Demand Survey and from Chen, TD & Kockelman KM (2016), Management of a Shared, Autonomous, Electric Vehicle Fleet: Implications of Pricing Schemes, University of Texas at Austin 
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