Connected and Autonomous Vehicles testing facilities
May 12, 2025
Completed in 2022, the Connected and Autonomous Vehicles (CAV) project at Culham Science Centre provides CAV companies with top-class purpose-built work space.
The project has been built adjacent to the Remote Applications in Challenging Environments (RACE) centre and includes four purpose-built workspaces, each approximately 2,377 sq. ft. in size, providing CAV companies with the opportunity to work on two vehicles in the workspace with office accommodation above where technicians can analyse huge quantities of data generated from the vehicles.
This facility has been named the ‘Pit Lane’ due to its resemblance of a Formula 1 garage. Pit Lane also includes a control centre from where vehicle movements are monitored which acts as the hub for a site-wide fibre optic network that links with dedicated 5G phone masts and wireless units, something which boosts Vehicle to Vehicle (V2V) connectivity (the ability of vehicles to communicate with each other) and further enhances testing capabilities.
With over 10km of varied and mixed private roads, alongside 2000 workers, the centre provides a unique environment for testing this life-changing technology.
OxLEP secured £2.3 million-worth of investment for the project via the Government’s Local Growth Fund.
Take a look at this short film to see the impact the project has already had:
Outcomes from the project include 51 new jobs and a total of 960m2 workspace created.