Companies
19/11/2017

Public Roads Used For Testing Self-Driving Cars In The U.K. By Jaguar Land Rover




Public roads are being used for testing of their newest driverless cars by Jaguar Land Rover, the biggest car manufacturer of the United Kingdom.
 
A half-mile route in Coventry city centre is the place of the trials that have going on for several weeks now.
 
Even while such vehicles always have the presence of a human driver on board, these vehicles drive themselves by with the use of sensors that they make use of to identify and detect traffic, pedestrians and signals.
 
This new technology has caught the fancy of both car makers and technology companies alike and both are competing hard to set a strong foot in this futuristic segment.
 
Small self-driving pods that have just two seats in them were granted permission to be tested and be navigated around on a pedestrianised area in Milton Keynes last October in what was the first public trial any form of autonomous vehicles. The trials took place at Milton Keynes.
 
The aim of that government-backed trials is to promote the trend among car users for more widespread use of self-driving vehicles by the year 2020.
 
Replication of human behaviour while driving and understanding the manner in which self-driving vehicles tend to interact with other users of a road are among the objectives of the trials and tests according to JLR.
 
Systems that would allow cars to communicate with each other is also something that JLR and Ford are also looking at. This essential means that computers of connected cars would be instantly alerted if another connected vehicle comes to a sudden stop.
 
Funded by the U.K. government, the £20m UK Autodrive project is one that also has the local authorities and insurers and the JLR and Ford project is a part of that wider project.
 
"Testing this self-driving project on public roads is so exciting, as the complexity of the environment allows us to find robust ways to increase road safety in the future," said Nick Rogers, the firm's executive director for product engineering.
 
In order to settle down the intricacies of how automated and electric vehicles and new technologies would operate in the U.K., the parliament is, at present, debating an automated and electric vehicles bill.
 
Autonomous vehicles are being developed by technology firms such as Alphabet's Waymo, and this has resulted in most of the major carmakers attempting to get a head start over the competition from such tech firms as well as from other car makers also engaged in this sector. 
 
The launch of a ride hailing service that would essentially be devoid of any form of human intervention behind the wheels was announced earlier this month by Waymo.
 
Complete self-driving cars are being tested by the company on the roads of Arizona in the U.S.
 
(Source:www.bbc.com) 

Christopher J. Mitchell
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