Jaguar Land Rover Develops Automatic Car Door

Jaguar Land Rover has developed a car door that opens automatically with the approach of the driver. The door can also be operated by gesture control.

The mobility door prototype, which is currently being tested on a Range Rover Sport, uses motion sensors and current keyless entry technology to detect the driver as they walk towards the vehicle before it automatically opens the door to welcome them.

The technology would be highly useful to disabled people who use a car as their primary mode of transport. It would also be useful to in cases where the driver’s hands are full with shopping or luggage as it eliminates the need to free a hand to open the door.

Once they are in the vehicle, the occupants can use an overhead button to close the mobility door. The infotainment system incorporates special software that indicates the status of each door and allows the operation of the driver and passenger doors from inside the cabin.

The driver’s door has radar sensors which can detect the presence of lamp posts or other obstacles which can prevent the door swinging open and bumping into objects. It is also possible to program the door so that it can close and lock behind a person as he walks away.

In order to conduct trials of the system, Jaguar Land Rover is working with a gold medal-winning Invictus athlete, Mark Ormrod. A former Royal Marine Commando, Ormrod is Britain’s first triple amputee from the Afghanistan conflict.
Mark said that the innovative technology would be of great benefit to disabled people like him who experience difficulty getting into and out of a vehicle. To many people, opening and closing the vehicle door is just a small task, but there are many who cannot perform this simple task so easily. It is such small, everyday obstacles that make life so frustrating for people with disabilities.

Jaguar Land Rover’s research team spent six months developing the system on a laboratory rig before they tested it on a Range Rover Sport. The technology would be highly useful for disabled people, and can be relevant for all future vehicles.

Xu Zhou, Deep Learning Technical Research Manager at Jaguar Land Rover, said that the mobility door is an innovative technology that would offer real-world value to the company’s customers. It would also be very welcoming to have the car door open when the driver approaches and would further enhance the customer experience.