On Friday 24 October 2025, the Self Driving Industry awards took place in Margate, celebrating excellence in automated mobility in the UK and internationally.

The 2025 Project of the Year award was awarded to evolvAD, which was led by Nissan alongside a consortium of partners including Connected Places Catapult. The project was recognised for demonstrating the aptitude of autonomous driving (AD) technology in dealing with speed bumps, mini-roundabouts, width restrictions and oncoming traffic, as well as rural lanes with extreme cambers and blind bends.

evolvAD: rigorous testing of autonomous driving technology in the UK

During the project, Connected and Autonomous Vehicles (CAVs) were tested in various simulators and on private test-tracks before being introduced onto the Smart Mobility Living Lab (SMLL) network. Here, the vehicle experienced challenging and narrow urban, residential, and rural roads for the most rigorous test of AD technology ever in the UK.

Over 21 months, evolvAD was delivered by a consortium of partners, each contributing specialist expertise:

• Nissan: Lead partner and leading the development of the connected and autonomous vehicles (CAV) trialled during the project
• Connected Places Catapult: Applying advanced AI techniques to generate cost-effective high-definition maps from aerial imagery
• SBD Automotive: On board cyber security and advanced safety case
• TRL: Further developing vehicle system validation processes utilising infrastructure on the Smart Mobility Living Lab (SMLL) testbed

 Working in collaboration with these partners, the Catapult’s geospatial specialists developed an AI tool to extract road features from satellite imagery for use in the high-definition maps that underpin AD systems. Validating the outputs with Nissan, the tool can be used for a range of AD-related applications where detailed information about road features are needed.

“It’s fantastic to see evolvAD awarded Project of the Year at the Self Driving Awards 2025. There is a huge opportunity for the UK to realise the economic benefits of being a pioneer in the connected autonomous vehicle market. At Connected Places Catapult we’re proud to have been working in this space for over a decade to support businesses of all sizes to innovate and grow.”

Sameer Savani, Managing Director for Transport at Connected Places Catapult

Cars of the Future editor, Neil Kennett, on behalf of the 2025 Self-Driving Industry Awards judging panel, said:

“We were delighted to present our Self-Driving Project of the Year Award to evolvAD by Nissan, in collaboration with Connected Places Catapult, SBD Automotive and TRL.

"Their vision was ambitious: To deliver connected and autonomous vehicles capable of driving in a wide range of environments, and to nurture a domestic supply chain capable of sustaining solutions for both the UK and for export.

"This project involved dealing with speed bumps, mini-roundabouts, width restrictions and oncoming traffic, as well as rural lanes with extreme cambers and blind bends. The results are so impressive, demonstrating exactly why Nissan continues to choose the UK for its most advanced self-driving testing.”

Accelerating the adoption of Connected Autonomous Vehicles

The Catapult has been working for over ten years to support the development of the Connected Autonomous Vehicle (CAV) market.  It has been involved in 20 programmes including HumanDrive, the single longest and most complex journey by an autonomous vehicle on UK roads, and ServCity, a project to support cities in understanding how they can harness the autonomous vehicle technologies and incorporate them into complex urban environments.

Other programmes have focussed on the societal impact of the technology, like FLOURISH in Bristol, which looked at the potential of CAVs to support an aging population. On the regulatory and safety side, experts from the Catapult helped inform the Automated Vehicle Act 2024.

A number of UK companies looking to capitalise on this emerging market have been supported by the Catapult, including Aurrigo and the University of Oxford spin-out Oxa.

Aligning with our mission to make UK transport more efficient, inclusive and safe, we are supporting increasing levels of autonomy by contributing to improved adoption, and accelerating new technologies and systems from pioneering SMEs in their route to market.

Find out more about our impact on the CAV market: https://cp.catapult.org.uk/case-study/connected-autonomous-vehicles/

To discover more about our work in transport, visit our transport hub.

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