The TRL Living Lab is the world's most advanced urban testbed. It's going to help us build safer, cleaner, sustainable, accessible, more intelligent and better joined-up smart cities and transport systems. Our engineers support your teams to rapidly convert innovative concepts for mobility products and services into commercial reality.
The testbed serves as a living laboratory to evaluate the implications of technologies for safety, congestion, sustainability, accessibility, economics, community engagement, and infrastructure. From the evidence generated we can make informed decisions about how to address the evolving needs and experiences of people living in cities.
It all started with a vision of the future in which there are different ways of moving people and goods around new ways of making life easier, cleaner, fairer; and commitment to be kinder to our planet
We are here to meet the needs of new types of customers who are shaping the future of transport by breaking with convention, leading with imagination, and inspiring a new generation to travel with softer footprints.
Take a tour: everything you need to know about the Lab in 3 minutes. (Note that the Smart Mobility Living Lab has been rebranded to TRL Living Lab).
London: a performance stage
London is a European megacity, with expected population growth of more than 10 million by 2041. Its international profile and visibility attract European and worldwide organisations and investors. London also has one of the most ambitious targets for reducing pollution caused by transport.
The Royal Borough of Greenwich and Stratford are excellent testbed locations, because they’re integrated with multiple modes and have highly developed public transport systems. Both have growing populations. These are dynamic urban communities that are adapting rapidly in response to social and environmental challenges. They also provide diverse and challenging urban settings with a range of complex features. If it works here, it will work anywhere.
Because the national government backs CAM innovation and the decarbonisation of transport, the TRL Living Lab operates within a supportive and safe UK legal framework for on-road testing. In addition the Living Lab enjoys the support and co-operation of its host local authorities and the capital’s transport operators.
The living streets of London are the perfect place to demonstrate ideas, with all the world watching.
A world-leading testbed
Built by the best for a fully connected journey
Five years in the making and launched in 2020, today, it is fully owned and operated by TRL but the Living Lab was conceived as an innovation project part funded by industry and the Government via the Centre for Connected and Autonomous Vehicles and InnovateUK. It was designed and built by a consortium comprising TRL, Cisco, DG Cities, London Legacy Development Corporation, Cubic, Loughborough University and Transport for London.
Facilities for hire at the Living Lab
We are proud of the exceptional facilities and environment that the Living Lab offers our customers and partners. Everything has been configured to provide the best environment for collaboration, research, and the mechanical work of setting up vehicles, components and systems for trials out on the road.
The offices and workshops in Woolwich are a great place to meet and network or run practical demonstrations and trials. All can be hired for single sessions or to support R&D projects.
5G spectrum coverage
Virgin O2 provide 5G connectivity to the testbed in the London Borough of Greenwich. 5G is a key enabler of many new C-ITS applications, personal mobility technologies and travel and logistics services. Being able to test it in a real world setting ahead of a wider rollout is an exciting feature of the testbed. Contact us for details about using 5G at the Living Lab.
Monitoring equipment
24km of London roads become a testbed thanks to a unique and sophisticated physical infrastructure that enables real time roadside monitoring and technology connectivity. The control room provides a live feed to view the entire TRL Living Lab testbed and access to data networking, storage, analysis and integration options.Download the datasheet detailing the monitoring infrastructure.
Garage and workshop
The Living Lab at Woolwich has secure garaging and workshop facilities for several vehicles which can be closed off for privacy. Download the datasheet showing how the lab hosts test platforms.
Parking and charging
We have designated parking for several vehicles, some with electric charge points. Download the datasheet about parking facilities at Woolwich
AV test vehicles
The Living Lab has two vehicles for hire. Both are open architecture platforms equipped with all the latest technology, sensors, data recording systems and connectivity to the monitored testbed. Download the datasheet about our automated vehicles
Office and meeting rooms for hire
The Living Lab premises at Woolwich are available for use on an ad-hoc basis or long term contract in support of extended trials. The space is ideal for private offices, meetings, collaboration workshops, and events. Download the datasheet to see what space options are available to hire.
The Greenwich testbed in Woolwich
The monitored test route in the Royal Borough of Greenwich features a complex array of roads, junctions and intermodal connections that allow advanced testing and trials in a real-world environment. It represents modern cities well, as a mix of modern urbanism and historical areas. It’s main interest as a testbed is that it has a high density of different road features to challenge new technologies.
Our purpose-built Living Lab is at Woolwich. It has an exciting range of digital and operational facilities for engineers to use between sprint testing out on the streets. With our own engineers on hand, product development can proceed at an accelerated pace.
The QEOP testbed in Stratford
The Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park in East London is an open, campus-like setting. A high-quality, modern built environment, the transport and road network serves a range of modern residential, retail and commercial zones.
The Park knits a vibrant area of East London into a modern urban destination - redefining the historic industrial and creative heartlands of Stratford and Hackney Wick as an exciting and sustainable place to live, work, study, play and visit. Former Olympic and Paralympic venues – including the London Stadium, the London Aquatics Centre, the Copper Box Arena and Lee Valley VeloPark – sit alongside innovative business districts, quality neighbourhoods, excellent schools and universities, the biggest names in culture and a talented workforce; all this combines to make Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park a global centre for London.
Case study: Nissan
The Living Lab was conceived to help industry build safer, cleaner, sustainable, accessible, more intelligent and better joined-up transport systems, turning the mobility products and services of the future from innovative ideas into commercial reality. The Human Drive/ServCity/EvolvAD project to trial an autonomous taxi service, led by Nissan, is a perfect example of this ambition.