Example Projects

Texting whilst Driving

In 2008, the use of mobile phones for tasks other than calls was growing dramatically. The risk posed by drivers using their phone for texting was recognised but not quantified.

In this landmark study for TRL and funded by the RAC Foundation, Nick used TRL’s high fidelity driving simulator to produce one of the world’s first objective studies to measure the impact of texting on driver behaviour. The results were covered extensively in the media (e.g. BBC)

GATEway

The UK Government launched a competition in 2014 called ‘Introducing Driverless Cars to UK Roads’. Working for TRL, Nick led a consortium involving Shell, Telefonica and Oxbotica to win the £8m GATEway (Greenwich Automated Transport Environment) project.

This landmark initiative trialled a variety of automated vehicles in real world environments with members of the public, achieving global coverage. This included the world’s first supermarket delivery by automated vehicle.

UK Smart Mobility Living Lab

With the UK promoting the development of connected and automated vehicles (CAVs), the Government launched an initiative to support the enhancement and coordination of testing facilities for these technologies.

Building on the success of the GATEway project, Nick was a leading architect of the UK Smart Mobility Living Lab, a collaborative initiative that included Cisco, Transport for London and Cubic as partners. The Smart Mobility Living Lab, led by TRL, was ultimately awarded more than £13m to support the development of CAV testing and development facilities in the Royal Borough of Greenwich and at the Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park.

London Connectory

A unique partnership between Bosch, the world’s largest automotive supplier, and Transport for London (TfL), the city’s integrated transport authority, Nick was a key contributor in establishing the relationship and development plans between the two organisations, leading to the creation of the London Connectory.

This high profile, high specification co-innovation space on Old Street, at the heart of London’s TechCity, enables collaboration between Bosch, TfL and partners from the public, private and academic sectors and from start-ups to multinationals, all working to solve London’s transport challenges and apply this learning globally.

ConVEx project

In 2018, the UK Government launched a competition, seeking a consortium to develop a connected vehicle data exchange - a secure, open platform to enable the commercial sharing of data to accelerate the development and deployment of automated vehicles.

Nick led the winning response, securing an £8m project entitled ConVEx (Connected Vehicle data Exchange). Under the leadership of Transport for the West Midlands (TfWM), the consortium includes Bosch, Jaguar Land Rover, the Warwick Manufacturing Group, and several innovative SMEs - Immense Simulations, Valerann and Synaptiv.

UK Government Consultations

The UK Government frequently seeks responses to consultation documents on a wide range of topics to inform future policy and funding decisions. Nick has responded to numerous consultations on topics such as the Smart Motorway concept and the opportunities offered by the introduction of automated vehicles.

This has led to public appearances in front of the relevant Government Select Committees, where evidence supplied in response to consultations is further explored by committee members in questioning witnesses (e.g. House of Lords Science and Technology Select Committee - Connected and Autonomous Vehicles: The future?.

European Commission AV ethics

In 2019, the European Commission inaugurated an expert panel to review the position the Commission should adopt in relation to the ethics associated with automated vehicles (AVs). In some quarters, this has been oversimplified as being a series of ‘Trolley problems’ - should the automated vehicle swerve left into one road user or swerve right into another. Clearly, this topic is much more complex and this panel, comprising ethicists, legal experts, technologists and social scientists explored how regulations can be developed to address ethical issues associated with AV deployment. The recommendations are published here.

PhD supervision / examination

Having completed his own PhD in 2001, Nick has since supervised two PhDs to completion - one on driver behaviour around truck platoons and one on the psychology of vehicle performance. He has also acted as industrial supervisor on three further PhDs on vehicle emissions / air quality, driver distraction and automated driving.

Beyond supervisory roles, Nick has also acted as external examiner on a number of PhD viva voce examinations, ensuring each university maintains the highest standards for their qualifications.

TEDx Reading

In 2016, Nick was invited to speak at the inaugural TEDx Reading event, held at Green Park. His topic was “The Promise of Vehicle Automation – Safer, Easier, Cleaner Journeys for All” and the talk described the benefits of automated vehicles but also some of the risk associated with their introduction relating to psychology.

The video of the talk can be watched on YouTube at the link above.