In October 2021 the StreetDrone team was back in Sunderland for a new round of testing at Nissan’s plant.

Alongside the 5G CAL project partners, StreetDrone are working to deliver a number of 5G-connected, autonomous 40-tonne trucks to distribute parts and assemblies across the Nissan plant, linking to many local SMEs in their supply chain.

The 5G CAL team consists of: Sunderland City Council, North East Automotive Alliance, StreetDrone, Perform Green, Vantec Coventry University, Newcastle University and Connected Places Catapult, with Nissan, Terberg and Fergusson as contributors.

StreetDrone’s aim is to deploy the safe and secure operation and handover of the CAV from autonomous mode to remote manual operation (teleoperation) and vice versa, when a situation outside of the autonomous logic of the vehicle arises.

This is considered a crucial demonstration of the capabilities of 5G and CAL, and critical for their operation in potential emergency situations.

During their first visit in July, the StreetDrone team conducted two testing activities, focused on teleoperation (using the SD e-NV200 mule to test the 5G internet connection via the masts and base stations installed around the Nissan site) and autonomous software (connecting the real-world vehicle to the virtual world, using the vehicle-in-the-loop technology in collaboration with IPG Automotive).

The purpose of the October testing activity was to complete the autonomous and connection testing activities in isolation on the SD e-NV200 test mule; the vehicle was used for flexibility purposes and to prove the software is ready to be tested on the CAV truck in the near future.

Continuing on from their previous work, the StreetDrone team are proud to announce that during their October visit at the Nissan site, they were able to show the full self-driving software stack performing autonomous drive and its first completely uninterrupted autonomous loop on the live route in Sunderland, at 8mph.

The StreetDrone team will return to Sunderland to continue testing the autonomous software and the connection to the 5G system installed on site.