Jaguar Land Rover has taken part in the UK’s first road tests for autonomous and connected vehicles, a move that the British company says is a significant step towards bringing an intelligent vehicle to reality.
As part of the $30.8m UK Autodrive project, Jaguar Land Rover tested a range of research technologies that will allow cars to talk to each other as well as roadside infrastructure, such as traffic lights on the roads. The trials explored how future connected and autonomous vehicles can replicate human behaviour and reactions when driving.
Jaguar Land Rover say they are working on both fully and semi-autonomous vehicle technologies. The company’s vision is to make the self-driving car viable in the widest range of real-life, on- and off-road driving environments and weather.
“Testing this self-driving project on public roads is so exciting, as the complexity of the environment allows us to find robust ways to increase road safety in the future," said Nick Rogers, executive director of product engineering at Jaguar Land Rover.
"By using inputs from multiple sensors, and finding intelligent ways to process this data, we are gaining accurate technical insight to pioneer the automotive application of these technologies."
With the launch of the trials, Coventry joins just 12 other cities in conducting tests on public roads globally.
UK Autodrive is the largest of three consortia launched to support the introduction of self-driving vehicles into the UK.
It is helping to establish the UK as a global hub for research, development and integration of automated and connected vehicles into society.
The consortium has already proven these research technologies in a closed track environment and the start of real-world testing is the next step to turning the research into reality. The trials will continue into 2018.
"We are supporting innovative research that will be integral to the infrastructure, technology and legal landscape needed to make intelligent, self-driving vehicles a reality within the next decade,” said Rogers.