West Midlands Mayor, Andy Street, today (23 January 2024) visited entrepreneurs who have taken part in the NatWest Clean Transport Accelerator at The University of Warwick to hear how the expertise it provided has helped them to grow their businesses.

On the day that Jaguar Landrover owners, TATA Sons, announce a £4m investment into a UK Gigafactory, expert Professor David Greenwood explains what gigafactories are, and why they're important to the UK automotive industry.

David Greenwood is a Professor of Advanced Propulsion systems, Warwick Manufacturing Group (WMG), The University of Warwick

New research by the University of Warwick has identified characteristics of aggressive driving – which impact both road users and the transition to self-driving cars of the future.

Leading experts at WMG at the University of Warwick and Deepen AI, have launched credit-based access to the largest public store of scenarios for testing automated vehicles. The Safety Pool™ Scenario Database, features over 250,000 different scenarios. WMG and Deepen AI are also working with regulators internationally to help evaluate the safety of Automated Vehicles using the Safety Pool^TM Scenario Database.

The UK is the last major Western economy not to legislate ‘Powered Micro Vehicles’. The University of Warwick wants to change that and has proposed a new set of regulations for allowing micromobility vehicles, such as e-scooters to operate legally in the UK. The report looks at ways to improve the quality and safety of models available, as well as providing clear guidance for authorities to deal with unsafe behaviour.

A new report launched by Dr Siddartha Khastgir of WMG calls for a codified set of rules to define safe and acceptable behaviour for automated transport systems as well as a scalable safety assurance framework.

Dr Siddartha Khastgir from WMG, University of Warwick, has been appointed to be on the DfT’s Science Advisory Council, where he will advise on a wide range of science and engineering issues, such as enrolment of Autonomous Vehicles.

Staff, students and visitors at the University of Warwick have embraced the new West Midlands Cycle Hire scheme, with more than half of the university’s base stations consistently in the top ten across the whole West Midlands region by trips made. The campus e-scooter trial has also proved popular with almost 50,000 rides being taken since the scheme’s launch. These two-wheel transport schemes are part of the University’s commitment to encouraging staff, students and visitors to swop car journeys for more sustainable modes of transport such as cycling and public transport

· As part of Coventry Very Light Rail (VLR), Coventry City Council’s flagship transport project, a novel track form has been designed and manufactured by researchers from WMG, University of Warwick, together with their design partners Ingerop/Rendel.

The University of Warwick has today, Thursday 17th June, submitted a proposal to create a huge new 48+ hectare public eco park on the south side of its campus for consideration in the South Warwickshire Local Plan.

The University of Warwick is not just backing today’s CBI report ‘Greener Miles: Delivering on a net-zero vision for commuting’ – which calls on businesses to shoulder greater responsibility for ensuring their workers adopting greener travel habits – it has already taken action with a two year extensive programme to cut personal car use on campus and therefore reduce emissions.

A team of students called The Warwick Boring Team are heading to LA this summer to compete in Elon Musk’s the Boring Company’s tunnelling competition. They will build their tunnelling machine and test it against competitors to get top spot.

The BRAINSTORM project, which saw partners from Far-UK, Composite Braiding, TDI and WMG at the University of Warwick create a woven braided carbon fibre composite frame for a Very-Light Rail (VLR), has won gold at the JEC World 2020 Innovation awards in the Category “Railway Vehicles and Infrastructure.”

The Coventry Very Light Rail project is about to embark on a new adventure, investigating how to create a low cost trackform for the light rail carriages already in development, thanks to £1.5m funding from West Midlands Combined Authority (WMCA), secured by CCC. This project aims to revolutionise affordable public transport in towns and cities.