Before scooping the prestigious Vehicle of the Year title at the Self-Driving Industry Awards 2024, at the Turner Contemporary in Margate, on Friday 22 November, Ohmio provided public rides in its all-electric Lift shuttle in the gallery car park.
Speaking on behalf of the judging panel, Cars of the Future editor, Neil Kennett, said: “At last year’s inaugural Awards, Mayor Rob Yates challenged us to get a driverless car to Margate. Better than that, we got the Vehicle of the Year winner – although they didn’t know it yet – to give locals their first taste of full self-driving. The feedback was universally positive, and the BBC were there to film it.
“Rather than an augmented version of an existing car or bus, the Ohmio Lift was designed to be self-driving from the beginning. With no driver’s seat or steering wheel, it can carry up to 20 passengers, with disabled access prioritised via an automatic ramp and dedicated wheelchair bay.
“Here in the UK, visitors to the NEC in Birmingham will soon enjoy rides as part of the government-backed SCALE project. More significantly, it will soon be on-road in Milton Keynes, as part of the StreetCAV project – supported by CCAV, Innovate UK and Zenzic – potentially providing a blueprint for nationwide deployment.
“Presenting the award to Ian Pulford, Director of Ohmio UK, Polly Billington, MP for East Thanet, set us a new challenge: Self-driving from the Main Sands to Walpole Bay next year. If they can prove the safety case in Birmingham and Milton Keynes, then why not Margate? Why not every town and city?”
Here’s the full list of 2024 Self-Driving Industry Award winners:
- Vehicle of the Year: Ohmio Lift
- Person of the Year: Jessica Uguccioni
- Consumer Champion: Meera Naran MBE
- Industry Legend: Prof. Philip Koopman
- Consumer Service: Waymo
- Aftermarket: Pro-Moto
- Design: TRL & Research Institute for Disabled Consumers
- Hardware: Scantinel
- Insurance: Association of British Insurers
- Legal: Burges Salmon
- Research: Lacuna
- Sensing Software: Kognic
- Foundational Software: Fusion Processing
- Testing: Karsan
- Trust: Oxa
- V2X: FocalPoint
- Launchpad (Hardware): Oxford RF
- Launchpad (Software): Streetscope
The event was again hosted by Jim Carey, and the judging panel included Alex Bainbridge of Autoura, Corey Clothier of Aribo AV, Dr Nick Reed of Reed Mobility, and Dr Martin Dürr of Dromos. Of the other headline winners, the judges said…
Person of the Year: Jessica Uguccioni
Having played a pivotal role in developing the UK’s world-leading regulatory framework, the Automated Vehicles Act, as lead lawyer on the Law Commissions’ AV Review, her new job at the Centre for Connected and Autonomous Vehicles (CCAV) involves driving the UK’s deployment strategy. From designing new legal entities, to laying the groundwork for advanced testing – talk about walking the walk!
Consumer Champion: Meera Naran MBE
Lobbying tirelessly for Dev’s Law – the mandatory fitting of Autonomous Emergency Braking (AEB) on all new vehicles, in honour of her son – this year, Meera highlighted “the potential of self-driving to be safer”. From attending the launch of PAVE UK, to taking a ride in an Oxa self-driving car, to engaging in discussions on rollout, she is a new, much-needed, independent voice in self-driving public safety.
Industry Legend: Professor Phil Koopman
Prof. Koopman, of Carnegie Mellon University in Pennsylvania, has dedicated his career to dependable software system engineering. In his seminal 2022 book “How Safe Is Safe Enough? Measuring and Predicting Autonomous Vehicle Safety” he deconstructs the oft-quoted metric of being “at least as safe as a human driver”, and urges greater focus on what is “acceptably safe for real-world deployment”.
Consumer Service: Waymo
Up and running in San Francisco, Phoenix and Los Angeles, the company formerly known as the Google Self-Driving Car Project has completed over 20 million miles of autonomous rides, reportedly with 73% fewer injury-causing crashes than human drivers. Nominated by multiple entrants, the judges agreed that this global leader was indeed the most deserving recipient of this new headline award.
