News & insights

Oxa is named by the UK Government as £150 million of funding is announced to supercharge the self-driving vehicles sector

Oxa has been included by the UK Government in its Advanced Manufacturing Plan which sets out £150 million of investment to supercharge the self-driving vehicle sector as part of a bigger stimulus package targeted at high-tech industries.

In the Government’s own words: “We want the UK to be the European leader in the transformation of how we move people and goods around the country. Through our CAM2030 programme, we are extending our current R&D support programme to 2030 with up to £150 million funding to support operational deployments of self-driving services. This will include on- and off-road logistics and high potential mass transit services … [and] seizing the opportunities that CAM provides, the UK could generate additional economic benefits of up to £66 billion a year and create 342,000 new jobs by 2040.”

Responding to the publication of the Plan, Oxa CEO Gavin Jackson, said: “The financial injection the Advanced Manufacturing Plan will deliver into the UK’s self-driving vehicle industry is a fantastic vote of confidence in the work Oxa and the wider autonomous mobility community has been doing. Ministers clearly see the value of self-driving technology - not only in terms of helping to revolutionise the way we travel in the UK, with increased safety and sustainability and additional people-moving capacity - but in the sector’s ability to create a whole new export opportunity based on UK ingenuity.

“I am particularly excited to see the Government call out self-driving mass transit schemes as it speaks to Oxa’s focus on shuttle services. We see autonomous shuttling as the quickest and best long-term benefit that self-driving technology can deliver as the benefits will be felt from city to countryside, warehouse to airport apron and far beyond.”

The Government’s latest announcement follows the entry into Parliament of the long-awaited Automated Vehicles Bill. You can read our blog here on what makes the Bill so important.