Coventry University demonstrates self-driving car at Motofest 2023

Coventry University showcased one of its self-driving vehicles at Coventry Motofest 2023.

The Nissan ENV 200, which is a fully battery and electric operated vehicle, could be seen driving around part of Coventry city centre on Saturday 3 June as part of the huge annual motoring event.

The vehicle, which is one of two self-driving research vehicles from the university’s Centre for Connected and Autonomous Automotive Research, was also demonstrated on the Industry day on Friday 2 June. 

The vehicle is fitted with a 360-degree scanning LiDAR - which stands for Light Detection and Ranging - which shows where the vehicle is and builds a digital picture of the surrounding environment. It also has a series of cameras which help to localise it, a forward-facing radar, ultrasound sensors and a 5G development kit.

Kevin and the team, in collaboration with Conigital as part of the CCAV funded Multi Area Connected and Automated Mobility project (MACAM), were on hand at Motofest to explain how the car works and show thehuge crowds the automated system which is located in the back of the car and “gives the vehicle all of its instructions” so that it will “drive smoothly with no hands and no feet needed”.

Find out more about our Centre for Connected and Autonomous Automotive Research.