launcht The UK’s biggest car manufacturer, Jaguar Land Rover has been testing driverless cars on public roads. The trials have been underway for several weeks on a half-mile route in Coventry city center. The vehicles rely on sensors to detect traffic, pedestrians and signals but have a human on board to react to emergencies.
The vehicles have drawn inspiration from the existing model of the Jaguar’s Range Rover Sport. While most driverless cars focus on enhancing their hardware systems with sophisticated components, Jaguar’s model is a bit more subtle. It features sensors on the bumpers, and a roof rack on top of the car. To ensure the safety of other drivers and pedestrians, a human driver is always behind the wheel, in case intervention is required.
Jaguar has said that it plans to continue these tests throughout 2018 while its engineers work on refining and improving the underlying technology. A release date for these cars has not been announced, but Jaguar is hopeful that driverless cars will be a reality within the next decade.
We are supporting innovative research that will be integral to the infrastructure, technology and legal landscape needed to make intelligent, self-driving vehicles a reality within the next decade.
– Nick Rogers, Executive Director.
An Automated and Electric Vehicles Bill is currently being debated in parliament to set out how new technologies will operate in Britain. Car-makers Tata, Ford and Jaguar Land Rover, are part of driverless car projects in Britain, as part of the UK Auto-drive group.
