Coventry, West Midlands - Jaguar Land Rover is leading a new project to develop self-driving cars that can ‘see’ at blind intersections and even through obstacles.
The £4.7 million (R80 million) AutopleX project will combine combine connected, automated and live mapping technology to provide more information, earlier and enable self-driving cars to ‘see’ and ‘talk to’ each other.
The aim is to enable self-driving cars to communicate with other road users and infrastructure, where there’s no line of sight, in effect helping them ‘see’ round corners, so they can safely merge lanes and negotiate complex traffic circles autonomously.
Real-world testing
The system will be developed through computer simulation and by public road testing, both on freeways and in urban environments in the West Midlands.
Autonomous vehicle research manager Chris Holmes explained: “This project is crucial to bringing self-driving cars to our customers. Together with our AutopleX partners, our aim is to meld connected technology and autonomous research so that our cars can drive themselves safely in the most challenging real-world traffic situations.”
Jaguar Land Rover is developing semi and fully automated self-driving systems, so customers can choose between an ‘engaged’ drive, and just sitting back and letting the car getting on with it, in the widest posssible range of real-life, on and off-road driving environments and weather.