26 Thursday January 13 2022 | the times
News
In a bunker-like room below the MK
Dons Stadium in Milton Keynes, Filipe
Carveira is sitting in an office chair
surrounded by a bank of screens. He
has pedals at his feet and in front of him
is a steering wheel that gamers use
when pretending to be Lewis Hamilton.
But this is no game. Carveira, 25, is
actually at the helm of an electric car
that, somewhere about a quarter of a
mile away, is accelerating to 30mph.
The screens relay live images from
around the car and a few minutes later
the empty vehicle comes to a halt out-
side the stadium.
Carveira’s bosses hope this is the
future of transport in the roundabout
town. The people of Milton Keynes are
after all used to strange contraptions.
They already have little robots that
deliver their parcels and takeaways.
From March they’ll be driving behind
burgundy Kia Niro cars — with nobody
at the wheel.
The town has been picked as the test
site for a new driverless car that resi-
dents will eventually be able to sum-
mon with the tap of the “Fetch” app.
The car, controlled not autonomously
but more like a Reaper drone from the
bunker at the stadium, will then make
its way to the user. They’ll hop in, take
over the controls and drive to their
destination, before handing it back to
the operator in the bunker.
“We want to be the Uber of the
future,” said Koosha Kaveh, the chief
executive of Imperium Drive. “Except
using Fetch will cost less because you’ll
be the driver for the time you’re in the
vehicle.
“Our trials will expand in the next
couple of months, then in the next 12 to
18 months we’ll be in a position to roll it
out to the city’s residents.”
The first public trials will centre on a
car “hub” developed at Milton Keynesstation, with disembarking passengers
able to hail a car using the app. By
March there will be two Kia Niro’s in
the test phase before a further eight join
the fleet by the end of the year.
“Autonomous vehicles have been a
long-term project for the city,” Peter
Marland, the leader of the council, said.
“Because Milton Keynes is new andbuilt on a grid system it makes it the
perfect test bed for this type of techno-
logy.” He said it “makes sense for people
who want a car but not one that’s sitting
on the driveway for most of the week
costing them money.”
Kaveh and his colleagues insist the
technology is safe. At present it is being
tested using Estrima Biròs — two-seat-er electric minicars that are equipped
with four cameras. “Unlike normal ve-
hicles, all the cameras mean there are
no blind spots,” Kaveh said. “But the
reason we are doing so many tests is to
make sure everything is safe.”
For at least the next six months there
will always be a “safety driver” in the car
who can take over.Hands-free in Milton Keynes: Ben Clatworthy test drives an “Uber of the future”T
here is something
surreal about
being at the
wheel of a vehicle but
not in the least bit in
control.
There were moments
when I wanted to grab
the steering wheel as
we slalomed around
the car park outside
the Stadium MK. At
other times I wanted to
slam on the brakes.
Possibly the weirdest
bit was being able to
check my emails while
whizzing along.
I was riding in an
electric Estrima Biròs,
a cross between a golf
buggy and a Smart car.
In reality I wasn’t
entirely giving my lifeDrone cars drive themselves to your door
Ben Clatworthy
Transport Correspondent
over to technology.
Somewhere in the
bowels of the stadium
looming over me, in
front of a bank of
screens, Filipe
Carveira, 25, a
Portuguese computer
engineer, was in
control of my wheels.
In front of me the
steering wheel moved
as we rounded corners
and at my feet the
pedals rose and fell as
if pushed by an
invisible force.
On the dashboard
the speed gauge moved
as the car accelerated
and a warning bleep
sounded as it reversed.
My buggy was just a
test vehicle but by the
spring two Kia Niro
electric cars with the
same technology will
be whizzing around the
stadium with no one at
the wheel.
The long-term planis for such cars to rival
the likes of Uber.
However, although
they could ferry
passengers sitting in
the back, the thinking
is that the user would
take the wheel once
they were in the car.
This would lower the
cost of use because
while they were at the
helm Carveira could be
piloting another car to
a new punter —
potentially in a
different part of the
country (or the world).
Except I rather liked
the idea of being
driven and after
20 minutes I’d got used
to being in the driving
seat but doing nothing.
To my mind the set-up
I enjoyed was just
perfect: all the benefits
of a taxi with no
awkward chit-chat and
no listening to a
stranger’s tunes.Ben
Clatworthy
CommentTIMES PHOTOGRAPHER JACK HILL