Jaguar Land Rover to test revolutionary ‘intelligent highway’
LUXURY SPORTS car brand Jaguar Land Rover will invest £5.5M (A$9.6M) in a 41-mile ‘living laboratory’ smart-highway to test in as part of the UK government’s £100M Connected and Autonomous Vehicles project.
As part of UK Connected Intelligent Transport Environment (UK-CITE), a consortium of universities and communications companies, JLR will create and test a route designed for motorway-to-vehicle and vehicle-to-vehicle interaction.
The technology will be installed over the next three years and include over 100 cars – five Jaguars and Land Rovers – fully equipped to ‘talk’ to each other and the motorway in real-world environments.
This Coventry-based section of in-field autonomy lab will test emergency vehicle warning systems, proactive traffic management alerts and assisted driving efficiency with highly-anticipated driverless technologies.
Road types in the research zone include dual carriageways and inner-city roads, to measure benefits and issues with the test systems.
Dr Wolfgang Epple, JLR Director of Research and Technology said, “This real-life laboratory will allow Jaguar Land Rover’s research team and project partners to test new connected and autonomous vehicle technologies on five different types of roads and junctions. Similar corridors exist in other parts of Europe so this is exactly the sort of innovation infrastructure the UK needs to compete globally.”
“The connected vehicles will test improved road safety, enhance the driving experience, reduce the potential for traffic jams and improve traffic flow.”
