Self-Driving Jaguars and Land Rovers out on Coventry’s roads

Jaguar Land Rover is out testing their autonomous self-driving technology in the real world on the streets of Coventry as part of the £20m UK Autodrive project.

If you’re going to deliver self-driving autonomous cars, it’s probably best you try out the technology first to make sure it works.

So as Jaguar Land Rover work to get self-driving technology in to production – as  part of the £20m UK Autodrive project – they’re now out on the streets of Coventry playing with what they’ve got.

But if you happen to be in Coventry when all this is going on, panic not – there is a ‘safety’ driver behind the wheel at all times.

What’s being tested, apart from the car’s ability to pilot itself, is technology which will help cars talk to each other as well as roadside infrastructure and learn to drive like a human.

JLR plan to offer both autonomous and semi-autonomous technology in their cars, allowing drivers to make the most of the drive when they can, and let the car do its stuff when driving’s a chore.

The aim with the UK Autodrive Project – one of three such self-drive technology consortia – is to help establish the UK as a global hub for the technology and its development, and its integration in to the real world.

Nick Rogers, JLR’s Product Engineering Director, said:

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.

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.

The test by JLR in and around Coventry will continue in to 2018.