Jaguar Land Rover going off-road with autonomous driving technology (+video)

Jaguar Land Rover are working on new technology which will deliver autonomous driving on any terrain using new sensor technology.

It’s incredibly clever – but not too difficult to get your head around – the idea that cars can use artificial intelligence to drive themselves on road. After all, the parameters are predictable and, if nothing else, the car knows it needs to be on the bit of grey tarmac in front of it.

But the idea of using autonomous driving technology off-road seems almost impossible because, unlike a road, there’s often no obvious path for the car to follow as a starting point.

But the potential enormity of the task hasn’t stopped Jaguar Land Rover getting stuck in to making it work with their Autonomous All-Terrain Driving research project, which aims to make autonomous driving possible off road as well as on.

The Jaguars and Land Rovers on the project use Surface Identification and 3D Path Sensing to view the world around them through radar, cameras and ultrasonic scanning and build a picture of what’s there and what’s coming up, enabling the system setup to react to changes by optimising the all-terrain response and speed.

But off-road it’s not just about what’s in front of you (or behind) but what’s overhanging, and JLR’s Overhead Clearance Assistant looks to do for overhanging branches (and barriers) what Wade Sensing does in water.

Also in the mix is a bit of technology called Off-Road Connected Convoy which allows the feedback the lead car gets from its surroundings to be fed back wirelessly to cars following – stuff like slip, suspension height and articulation – to make life easier.

Tony Harper, JLR’s Head of Research, said:

Our all-terrain autonomy research isn’t just about the car driving itself on a motorway or in extreme off-road situations. It’s about helping both the driven and autonomous car make their way safely through any terrain or driving situation.

We don’t want to limit future highly automated and fully autonomous technologies to tarmac. When the driver turns off the road, we want this support and assistance to continue.

All this technology is clearly very clever and clearly heading for a Land Rover (and a Jaguar too) at some point in the not too distant future, although probably not for a couple of years at least.

Jaguar Land Rover Connected Convoy Research Video