Jaguar won’t build driver-less cars. Or will they?

Jaguar’s head of R&D – Wolfgang Epple – says Jaguar will never build a driver-less car. But Jaguar say they are working on fully autonomous technology. Which is it?

There’s an apparent headlong rush by car makers to build cars that can drive themselves – with everyone from Google, Apple and Tesla to Mercedes and Volvo trying to make it happen first – but there’s one dissenting voice in this push – Jaguar.

To be precise, the dissenting voice is Jaguar’s Head of R&D, Wolfgang Epple, who has made it very clear to Automotive News that the idea of a Jaguar that can’t be driven is anathema to Jaguar.

For Epple, Jaguar buyers don’t want to be simply ‘cargo’ in their cars, but buy their Jaguar so they can experience the thrill of the drive, so the idea that Jaguar will ever take that away is unthinkable. And we agree with him.

But Epple’s statement did make Jaguar sit up and take notice, declaring that Epple never meant to say Jaguar would never build autonomous cars, and that they’re fully committed to bringing fully-autonomous and semi-autonomous technology to Jaguar’s car. So who’s right.

Actually, they probably both are.

We’ve said many times before that the idea of a fully autonomous car that needs no input – and has no steering wheel or driver – would only ever replace a human driver for taxis or buses, and that autonomous driving technology will be used on private cars to enhance the driving experience.

We don’t want to put words in the Herr Epple’s mouth, but we’re sure he meant that Jaguar would never build a car that was purely autonomous, and that all future Jaguars with autonomous driving technology would allow the driver to sit back and relax in congested areas, whilst the computer takes the strain, switching back to human-controlled driving as soon as an appealing bit of road beckons.

Which, as lovers of cars and driving, sounds just fine to us.