Two British based autonomous mobility innovators have announced they’re working together to drive the future of autonomous mobility and logistics in Europe.
Goggo Network, which uses autonomous vehicles in last and middle-mile logistics, is working with the autonomous vehicle software developer Oxbotica to introduce Oxbotica’s autonomous driving system into Goggo’s middle and last mile delivery operations in its key industries, including fast moving consumer goods, groceries and food delivery.
This will be deployed on-road, as part of Goggo’s electric vehicle network. The vehicles selected will have a maximum payload capacity of up to 1,500kg, which will be important in leading heavy and large cargo of autonomous middle-mile deliveries for retailers and distributors.
The first stage of the collaboration will see Goggo deploying Oxbotica’s autonomy software in Spain, to explore the benefits of Oxbotica’s technology in middle mile delivery in its operations with key partners including the likes of Carrefour, Día and Telepizza. They say the success of these tests will be a key building block for Goggo to include Oxbotica within its wider mobility network across cities in Europe including those in France.
Oxbotica’s autonomous driving software is capable of driving both on and off road, in various weather conditions, low light and darkness, and able to adapt to any location, such as local road or site routes. It uses advanced AI to accurately sense and predict changes to the environment the vehicle is in, whilst learning from previous journeys, which is key to continually improving the safety and efficiency of the technology.
The companies say their announcement comes at a time of high fuel costs and a shortage of drivers across Europe, but ever increasing demand for services as online shopping skyrockets. By 2026, across Europe, driver shortage is expected to triple, with the total topping two million, and they say their collaboration will help tackle these challenges and address the urgent need to move goods from A to B safely and efficiently.
“Our partnership with Oxbotica centres around a shared commitment to realising the benefits of autonomous mobility today,” said Yasmine Fage, co-founder and COO at Goggo. “Our collaboration will enable Goggo to provide an unparalleled experience for autonomous middle and last mile deliveries throughout Europe. We were impressed by Oxbotica’s system for autonomy and its outstanding safety standard, and we are excited to see how this collaboration can have a positive impact in the logistics industry, helping some of the critical challenges it faces today.”
“We are thrilled to be working with Goggo to enable businesses in Europe to deploy autonomous vehicle technology sooner for safer and more efficient operations,” said Gavin Jackson, CEO at Oxbotica. “We look forward to deploying our unique autonomy solution into their mobility network. From Goggo benefitting their fleets being driven by Oxbotica to our ground-breaking virtual testing environment and suite of cloud-based management tools – we can help Goggo get the most value from their autonomous fleets.”
Alongside Oxbotica’s self-driving software, Goggo will be tapping into Oxbotica’s fleet management system to safely and effectively operate its fleet of autonomous vehicles, and optimise operational performance.
Goggo will also benefit from Oxbotica MetaDriver – a suite of tools that uses generative AI and machine learning to validate, verify and ensure the safety of autonomous vehicles in a virtual environment. Oxbotica MetaDriver automatically generates a vast bank of scenarios, used to test and refine AV operations and behaviours without ever needing to physically drive in them, which will accelerate the safe deployment of autonomous vehicles in Goggo’s network.
Goggo plans to start operating with safety drivers to oversee its entire Autonomous Mobility Network in 2023, and once the respective safety validations have been completed and regulatory clearance obtained, it will make the transition to full autonomy.
(Picture – Goggo)
