Connected Places Catapult: Driverless Cars

Whilst working at Connected Places Catapult, I was involved in a variety of driverless vehicle projects; the LUTZ Pathfinder, UK Autodrive, MuCCA and many more.

I oversaw the full marketing and communications strategy and budgets for each project, organising my team members, contractors and agencies throughout.

LUTZ Pathfinder Project

Transport Systems Catapult (now Connected Places) was responsible for putting a self-driving vehicle on UK public streets for the first time.  The demonstration of a UK developed autonomous driving system, in 2016, marked the conclusion of the LUTZ Pathfinder Project, which began developing autonomous technology in 2014.

The project was carried out on behalf of the UK Automotive Council and the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (formerly the Department of Business Innovation and Skills).

UK Autodrive

Oversaw the first UK public demonstration of driverless vehicles and had the overall marketing and PR responsibility for two of the country’s biggest Connected & Autonomous vehicle projects.

MuCCA Project

The Multi-Car Collision Avoidance Project (MuCCA) was a £4.6m, 30-month project funded by the Centre for Connected and Autonomous Vehicles (CCAV) via Innovate UK, which worked to develop a next-generation driver aid that aimed to avoid multi-car collisions on motorways. If an accident can not be avoided, the MuCCA system attempts to minimise its consequences (both injuries and damage).

Connected Places Catapult: Events

Events formed an important element of my strategy at Transport Systems Catapult & Connected Place Catapult (the part government funded innovation agency) as they allowed me to showcase both ground-breaking innovation projects delivered by the Catapult and the innovative UK organisations the Catapult work with to a global audience.

During my 6 years at the Catapult I oversaw hundreds of events from a mixture of in-house events focusing on subjects such as Electric vehicles, Drones, Hyperloop, smart cities, blockchain and driverless cars to name but a few, to running UK Pavilions at major events in places such as Singapore and organising events on behalf of Catapult customers such as HS2 and the Department for Transport. My ethos has always been about quality and creating a great experience, here are a few great examples:

IPIC Conference, London 2019

At the request of The Department for Transport, my team organised, ran and hosted a 3 day international conference in London In July 2018. In addition to overseeing the logistics of the event, an event that saw over 300 delegates attend from most mainland Europe counties as well as America, Australia and China, I compered the actual event itself. Read more here.

ITS World Congress

The annual ITS World Congress (Intelligent Transport Systems), the worlds largest future transport event, was a key pillar in my strategy to create awareness and opportunities for both the Catapult and UK plc. The event itself moves around the world and in addition to sitting on the steering committee, I have been responsible for activity including a UK Pavilion showcasing the best of UK PLC in Singapore, Copenhagen, Montreal and Bordeaux.