Oxbotica to develop versatile autonomous vehicle with AppliedEV

LONDON, Sept. 8 (Reuters) – Autonomous driving software start-up Oxbotica announced on Wednesday that it has partnered with AppliedEV to develop a fully autonomous, versatile vehicle that could suit a variety of commercial uses.

The first deployments of autonomous electric vehicles (EVs) will be in industrial logistics and automated delivery of goods.

“We have an ambitious deployment target over the next few years, driven by an extraordinary market appetite for a world-class product,” Oxbotica founder Paul Newman said in a statement.

In April, UK online grocer Ocado (OCDO.L) announced it would invest £ 10million ($ 13.8million) in Oxbotica as part of a partnership to lower the cost of delivery last mile and other logistical elements. Read more

“We are really excited and support this collaboration between Oxbotica and AppliedEV, as we see it as an important step in our journey towards developing advanced autonomous mobility solutions for the Ocado smart platform,” said Alex Harvey, Head of cutting-edge technologies at Ocado Technology.

AppliedEV, an autonomous electric vehicle manufacturer founded by former executives of Tesla Inc (TSLA.O) and General Motors Co (GM.N), will provide the electric vehicle platform for the vehicle.

AppliedEV chief executive Julian Broadbent said the partnership could deliver “strong business results” in as little as 12 months.

In January, Oxbotica said it raised $ 47 million in a funding round led by the venture capital arm of oil giant BP (BP.L) and which included health and safety device maker Halma Plc. (HLMA.L) and Tencent (0700.HK). Read more

($ 1 = 0.7255 pounds)

Reporting by Nick Carey; Editing by Cynthia Osterman

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