XL Catlin has joined a consortium aiming to deploy a fleet of connected, fully autonomous vehicles in the UK.

The ambitious project, called Driven, will see the fleet deployed in urban areas and on motorways, culminating in a journey from London to Oxford.

The vehicles will operate at Level 4 autonomy – meaning they can perform all safety-critical driving functions and monitor roadway conditions for an entire trip.

Driven claims “no connected and autonomous vehicle trial at this level of complexity and integration has been attempted anywhere in the world”.

The consortium is led by software company Oxbotica, and XL Catlin is the only insurer involved. It will collect and analyse data from the project “to create a risk profiling tool and insurance pricing mechanism that will help make broad commercial use of autonomous vehicles and the related technologies an insurable reality”.

“XL Catlin sees this project as a significant step for the insurance industry, on a global level,” a spokesman said.

“The current model of car insurance is going to change. The new technologies and the many different component parts necessary to enable autonomous mobility create new challenges and evolving, new risks.”