Public Funding for Vantec Europe Limited

The DCMS 5GCAL project (2020-22) delivered a working proof-of-concept demonstration of the autonomous and teleoperation of a 40-tonne truck at the Vantec-Nissan Manufacturing UK site, with live loads delivered from Vantec to NMUK autonomously without intervention by a safety driver. The successful outcomes of 5GCAL now needs to be taken into actual operational conditions and alternative, more complex routes, which build scale, reliability and consistency of operation. It is recognised that the first commercial opportunities for CAL technologies are in controlled environments such as ports, airports, distribution centres and 'campus' style manufacturing sites. Demonstrating CAL in contained areas is crucial to expanding use across other scenarios. Research shows full autonomy could reduce logistics operating costs by 47%, and expansion onto public roads is likely to have significant economic impacts and have transformative impacts on logistics costs, accidents, and e-commerce. 5GCAL2 will scale and expand the initial 5G CAL proof of concept, providing two real industrial use cases for the scale and deployment of connected and autonomous logistics. * The original trial route where 100% of its current vehicles would be replaced with zero-emission HGVs retrofitted with CAL technology. Scale-up of this route will have to consider the real-world scenarios operators face. JIT delivery is production critical and therefore, the autonomous system would have teleoperation back up, utilising the 5G network built and funded by the initial 5GCAL project. The project would also address the key challenges of scale deployment, including improved cyber security, system integration and overcoming the challenges of scaling the teleoperation and autonomous systems. * A more "real world" challenging route where the CAL truck would encounter traffic lights, roundabouts, security gates, bridges and other manned road users. Utilizing the original 5GCAL vehicle, we plan to transport the newly assembled vehicles from Nissan's EoL to the UK car compound, improving efficiency and reducing labour costs. A fully autonomous system would be deployed in this scenario where delivery is not production critical. Overcoming these key challenges will allow the project to showcase its key objectives in proving safe, reliable, and robust systems across multiple use cases, minimising the need for human intervention, and delivering on time every time. This project has the potential to unlock the enormous potential for CAL services driving significant UK growth in this emerging, high-potential field.