Future scenarios for the deployment of autonomous vehicles in urban environments.

It is widely anticipated that autonomous vehicles will play an important role in future urban environments, particularly in city-centres. There is considerable potential for such vehicles to support more sustainable urban mobility, if powered by alternative sources to petrol or diesel engines. The proposed project will conduct an evidence review of academic, technical and policy literature to determine the current state-of-the-art in terms of autonomous vehicle development and deployment across the world. The project will develop, storyboard and evaluate alternative qualitative scenarios for the future deployment of autonomous vehicles in urban environments under a range of policy and public acceptability scenarios and alternative time horizons.

Candidates should have (or expect to achieve) a UK honours degree at 2.1 or above (or equivalent) in Engineering, Geography or a cognate discipline.

Knowledge of:
Transport studies
Transport engineering
Transport geography
Planning and built environment
Experience in use of Qualitative and quantitative research methods desirable.

APPLICATION PROCEDURE:

• Apply for Degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Engineering
• State name of the lead supervisor as the Name of Proposed Supervisor
• State ‘Self-funded’ as Intended Source of Funding
• State the exact project title on the application form

When applying please ensure all required documents are attached:

• All degree certificates and transcripts (Undergraduate AND Postgraduate MSc-officially translated into English where necessary)
• Detailed CV

Informal inquiries can be made to Dr M Beecroft ([email protected]), with a copy of your curriculum vitae and cover letter. All general enquiries should be directed to the Postgraduate Research School ([email protected])

It is possible to undertake this project entirely by distance learning. Interested parties should discuss this with Dr Beecroft.