Oxa

Oxford University spin-out (formerly Oxbotica) that builds self-driving software for industrial vehicles such as those used at ports, airports and mines.

About Oxa

Oxa builds the software that lets vehicles drive themselves. Unlike some self-driving companies that focus on taxis, Oxa focuses on industrial vehicles: the machines that tow baggage at airports, carry goods around ports and factories, and work in places such as solar farms and industrial sites. It calls this field Industrial Mobile Autonomy, and its main product is Oxa Driver, which can be fitted to many different types of vehicle. Its first commercial deployment of Oxa Driver was in 2024, with the company Beep.

The company came out of the University of Oxford. It was founded in 2014 by Professor Paul Newman and Professor Ingmar Posner, who had led the RobotCar UK project in the university's Mobile Robotics Group. It was originally called Oxbotica and renamed Oxa in May 2023. It is headquartered in Oxfordshire and also opened a Toronto office, according to Wikipedia.

Oxa's vision is what it calls Universal Autonomy: the ability of any vehicle to operate on its own, in any place, at any time. The company says it treats innovation and safety as inseparable, and it has won awards for its approach. For a young person this is a useful example of how a university research project can become a company.

Its history includes a series of well-known UK trials. In 2015 a self-driving pod using Oxbotica software was demonstrated in Milton Keynes. In 2017 it trialled seven shuttle buses in Greenwich and took part in a driverless grocery delivery trial with Ocado in London. In 2018 it ran trials at Heathrow and Gatwick airports. Wikipedia reports about 400 employees in 2025.

Oxa's team combines robotics, machine learning, software, safety and engineering, and the company invites people to its careers page. The pages we read do not describe internships or graduate schemes, so students should check the live roles.

What they do

• {'desc': 'Self-driving software that can be fitted to different industrial vehicles.', 'title': 'Oxa Driver'}
• {'desc': 'Driverless towing and carrying of goods and baggage.', 'title': 'Autonomy for ports and airports'}
• {'desc': 'Autonomous patrols for assets and perimeters at solar farms and industrial sites.', 'title': 'Site monitoring'}
• {'desc': 'Work on proving that autonomous driving is safe.', 'title': 'Safety assurance'}

Key facts

• Founded: 2014, as a spin-out of the University of Oxford
• Previously called Oxbotica; renamed Oxa in May 2023
• Founders: Paul Newman and Ingmar Posner
• Headquarters: Oxfordshire, UK, with an office in Toronto
• Earlier trials included Heathrow and Gatwick airports (2018) and an Ocado delivery trial (2017)

Website: oxa.tech