Jaguar Land Rover Prepares for Autonomous Era with Testing on ‘Connected Corridor’

Automotive technology has advanced to the point where we will be seeing self-driving cars on the road sooner rather than later. Jaguar Land Rover is preparing for the era of autonomous cars by testing smart, connected cars on roads in the UK.

These tests held on public roads are being conducted as part of s GBP 7.1 million project which is meant to help create the first fully connected infrastructure for self-driving cars in the UK. In a world-first move, over 40 miles of the M40, M42, A45 and A46 highways in the country will be equipped with a combination of wireless technologies like Wi-FI, fiber optic networks, DSRC and 3/4G mobile networks so that vehicles can always remain connected to each other and to the infrastructure.

Equipping cars with the technologies to connect to each other (V2V) and to the infrastructure (V2X) is considered to be a significant step that needs to be taken to increase safety before large-scale deployment of self-driving cars. The technologies used for connectivity will work in tandem with other vehicle sensors to extend the range to which a vehicle can ‘see’ down the road and ‘speak’ to the network, pedestrians, other vehicles and infrastructure. For example, a timely warning about a car that is normally far too ahead to be seen applying brakes can help the following car to avert an accident. The system can work equally well on both manual and autonomous driving vehicles and can contribute significantly to road safety across levels of autonomy.

Commenting on the new technologies, Colin Lee, Jaguar Land Rover Connectivity Manager, said that in order to understand the full benefit of self-driving cars, we need to learn more about the infrastructure that is needed to support them. Connectivity is an important step forward when it comes to self-driving cars. It also creates a platform for Jaguar Land Rover to offer more connected safety features to the company’s customers within the next few years. The company is working with renowned global experts across industry and academia to take the project into the next phase of testing.

As part of the project, Jaguar Land Rover will be testing a diverse range of intelligent connected features like emergency electronic brake light warning (EEBL), emergency vehicle warning (EVW), and in-vehicle signage (IVS) for roadworks warning (RWW) and traffic condition warning (TCW).

These tests are being conducted as part of the UK CITE project. This project is one of the many projects dealing with connected and autonomous technologies which will help Jaguar Land Rover to offer customers more advanced features so that they can benefit from a safer and more enjoyable ride. This project is part of the company’s vision to leverage connectivity as a segue to making the self-driving car viable in the widest range of real-life, on- and off-road driving conditions.