British automaker Jaguar Land Rover has announced that it will start testing self-driving and connected-car technologies on public roads in the U.K., as part of its efforts for building a fully autonomous car. The automotive company has joined a recently announced government initiative aimed at supporting the development of driverless car technologies.
Jaguar Land Rover’s tests will be carried out within the UK Connected Intelligent Transport Environment (UKCITE) project, which is one of 8 research and development projects funded by the U.K. government.
Connected Corridor
The UK CITE project will involve tests of vehicles with self-driving capabilities on a total of 41 miles of public roads near Coventry and Solihull. The route will be outfitted with special equipment that will allow vehicle-to-vehicle and vehicle-to-infrastructure communication, becoming a connected corridor and a “living laboratory” for Connected and Autonomous Vehicle (CAV) technologies, said the company in a press release.
To that end, the car maker will deploy a fleet of 100 test vehicles – including both Jaguar and Land Rover models – all of which have been equipped with in-car connectivity and autonomous driving technologies.
“The connected and autonomous vehicle features we will be testing will improve road safety, enhance the driving experience, reduce the potential for traffic jams and improve traffic flow. These technologies will also help us meet the increasing customer demand for connected services whilst on the move,” said Dr Wolfgang Epple, Director of Research and Technology, Jaguar Land Rover.
Warning Systems
At the focus of Jaguar Land Rover’s research and development efforts will be technologies that have to do with supplying autonomous cars with information on current road conditions and on the actions of surrounding vehicles, so that each car can be alerted to potential road hazards and have sufficient time to react and avoid dangerous situations.
“A well-informed driver is a safer driver, while an autonomous vehicle will need to receive information about the driving environment ahead. The benefits of smarter vehicles communicating with each other and their surroundings include a car sending a warning that it is braking heavily or stopping in a queue of traffic or around a bend. This will enable an autonomous car to take direct action and respond. Drivers would receive a visual and audible warning that another car is causing a hazard out of sight or over the horizon,” added Dr Epple.
These “Over the Horizon” warning systems are primarily supposed to help improve traffic safety, but also reduce or completely eliminate traffic jams.
What’s more, the company says that its connected vehicle technology, called “Emergency Vehicle Warning” system can be used to allow emergency vehicles to inform other drivers on the road, or self-driving cars in the future, that they are approaching, ahead of time, giving drivers and autonomous cars enough time to make way for the emergency vehicle in the safest and most convenient manner possible.
The UK CITE project is funded by a government grant of about $5 million, and it will run for 30 months.