New 'Atlas' Consortium Wants To Position UK as Leader in Autonomous Vehicles

A new consortium led by Ordnance Survey, Britain’s official mapping agency, secured 20 million pounds (about $27.9 million) in U.K. government funding to position the U.K. as a leader in connected and autonomous vehicles, the consortium said in a Wednesday announcement. The new consortium, code-named Atlas, officially opens for business in May and counts Sony Europe as one of its several members, the announcement said. Atlas will “study data critical to the efficient operation of autonomous vehicles” and “the feasibility of maintaining, processing and distributing this data is a core element of the project,” it said. “If Atlas is successful, we could see a more rapid take-up of connected and autonomous vehicles, consolidating the UK’s position as a global leader in driverless car technologies and innovation.” Autonomous vehicles “will need to find their way reliably and safely through a vast network of streets while interacting with driven and other autonomous vehicles,” it said. Self-driving cars “will combine the power of advanced sensors to detect road conditions, cutting edge, 5G communications technology to access a stream of data about the world around them, and geographical databases of routes, destinations and points of interest,” it said.