Bruntingthorpe’s CAV test facilities
Bruntingthorpe’s facilities are being enhanced throughout 2019 and 2020 in order to accommodate new Connected and Autonomous Vehicle (CAV) Testing. In November 2018, Bruntingthorpe Proving Ground in partnership with Applus+ IDIADA were awarded £4 million of government funding to design and operate a new Connected and Autonomous Vehicles (CAV) test facility at the Bruntingthorpe site, a project with a total investment of £8.4 million. The new facilities will be branded under the facility name CAVWAY.
This initiative includes controlled highway test facilities and builds on the existing environment at Bruntingthorpe Proving Ground to provide a comprehensive, flexible set of highway intersections. These will be able to mimic a wide variety of UK road junctions, from smart motorways to rural A and B roads, to allow CAVs to be tested in a representative, yet safe and secure manner.
The 6km of extensions will create a purpose built realistic, safe environment for testing CAVs in a range of scenarios; a critical activity to ensure consumer confidence in the technologies.
This upgrade will establish a critical piece of testing infrastructure on the Bruntingthorpe Proving Ground site, which will enable the testing of almost any vehicle under almost any scenario in a fully connected, representative environment in a repeatable and controlled manner.