Oxbotica and AppliedEV to develop fully autonomous multi-purpose vehicle

The project will see Oxbotica integrate its autonomous vehicle software with AppliedEV's programmable and configurable EV platform. The vehicle will be driverless, marking a huge step on the journey towards commercial autonomy.

Industrial logistics and goods delivery will be the first industries targeted for deployment, with continued growth expected in further industries as the number of vehicles scaled.

The go-to-market strategy for Oxbotica and AppliedEV is to focus on markets that have immediate economic business cases, and a mature regulatory environment to enable deployment at scale.

The AppliedEV platform, Blanc Robot, is modular and fully flexible, designed to operate as a fully autonomous vehicle and configurable for specific applications, such as logistics or industrial. AppliedEV offers the Blanc Robot with an all-wheel-drive system, in either an off-road or on-road specification. Battery size is matched to the duty and charge cycles, with total efficiency up to ten miles/kWh. This versatility is a perfect match for Oxbotica's Universal Autonomy software platform.

Paul Newman, Founder and CTO of Oxbotica, said: "Working in collaboration with AppliedEV to provide the market with an autonomy solution comprising both hardware and software with the highest safety standards is a singular and unifying goal. We have an ambitious deployment goal over the coming years, driven by an extraordinary market appetite for a world-class product."

Julian Broadbent, Founder and CEO, AppliedEV, said: “Oxbotica and AEV both see an opportunity in the market to come together with a unique offering of strong commercial outcomes as early as 12 months. The real value of automated vehicles is to operate without the presence of a driver with high levels of safety. There are not many instances where you will find full autonomous vehicles in the market doing a real job, with real economics. Removing the driver and passengers reduces the risk and creates new levels of value and service.”

Alex Harvey, Chief of Advanced Technology, Ocado Technology commented on the collaboration: “We are really excited and supportive of this collaboration between Oxbotica and AppliedEV as we see it as an important step on our journey to developing advanced autonomous mobility solutions for the Ocado Smart Platform.”