Jaguar Land Rover reveals autonomous off-roading tech

Jaguar Land Rover’s latest multi-million pound research project aims to make autonomous all-terrain driving a reality.

“It’s about helping both the driven and autonomous auto make their way safely through any terrain or driving situation”, Tony Harper, Head of Research, Jaguar Land Rover, said on the news of the announcement. We are talking about regular cameras, ultrasonic sensors, radar, and LIDAR, all working together to “tell” the vehicle that it is about to drive over snow, sand, grass, or tarmac before its wheels touch the surface. The sensors scan up to five metres ahead of the vehicle, and could change Terrain Response settings automatically to smooth progress.

Testing will involve “vehicle-to-vehicle” and “vehicle-to-infrastructure” communications technologies that will allow the Jaguar Land Rover vehicles to communicate with each other as well as with road signs, overhead gantries and traffic lights. Land Rover says it’s about helping both the driven and autonomous vehicle make their way safely through any terrain or driving situation. “In traffic, for example, the driver could choose autonomy assist during tedious or stressful parts of the journey”. “We will also improve the driving experience, with drivers able to choose how much support and assistance they need. With further research, in the future this system could enable the auto to drive autonomously through roadworks”.

Additionally, the all-terrain autonomous vehicles will be able to communicate with one another, ensuring that vehicles are not blind to others that are out of sight, around a curve or behind an off-road obstacle.

The auto brand recently revealed they’re developing “All Terrain Self-Driving” technology.

The plan is paying off, and Jaguar Land Rover head of research Tony Harper is happy to announce that the cars are more likely to be flash, than bang and wallop.

Roadwork Assist: Alerts the driver if road construction is coming and help keep the vehicle between the construction cones.

Naturally, the sensors will also observe other obstacles, like branches, boulders, tree roots, auto park barriers, and whatever customers might meet in real life.

Safe Pullaway: Automatically stops the vehicle if the system detects vehicles or walls if the driver accidentally puts the vehicle into drive and not reverse.

Land Rover also leaned on the company’s Terrain Response settings to adjust to whatever uneven off-road surface the connected vehicles encountered during this experiment.

Artificial intelligence technology then analyzes the collected data, determines how the environment will impact the vehicle’s ride, and automatically adjusts things like speed, steering, and suspension.

Emergency Vehicle Warning is the other significant technology undergoing tests.

It can be hard to know when an emergency vehicle is approaching on a blue light run, so this technology would allow connected ambulances, police vehicles and fire engines to warn other vehicles.

“Or for the ultimate safari experience, cars following in convoy would be told by the lead vehicle where to slow down and stop for their passengers to take the best photographs”.