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Jaguar Land Rover To Test Autonomous Cars In 'Living Lab' (thestack.com)

Posted by timothy on from the good-setting-for-a-horror-movie dept.

An anonymous reader writes: British automaker Jaguar Land Rover has announced its £5.5 million investment in a 'living lab' for the testing and development of connected and self-driving car technologies. The UK Connected Intelligent Transport Environment (CITE) will span 41-miles of public roads around Coventry and Solihull, and will be used to test new connected and autonomous vehicle (CAV) systems in real-life conditions. The company is planning to install roadside sensor equipment around the lab route to monitor vehicle-to-vehicle and vehicle-to-infrastructure communications. The fleet will include 100 CAV cars, which will test four different connectivity technologies; 4G long-term evolution (LTE) and its more advanced version LTE-V, dedicated short-range communication (DSRC), and local Wi-Fi hotspots.

14 of 24 comments (clear)

  1. Real Life? by Mikkeles · · Score: 2

    So, does that mean a foot of snow on the ground, at night, with no pre-entry of the route?

    --
    Great minds think alike; fools seldom differ.
    1. Re:Real Life? by Lab+Rat+Jason · · Score: 1

      To this point... I've also freaked out when a paper bag rolled in front of my car. And I don't drive over bags and boxes that simply "appear" to be strewn about by a storm... I've also seen Seran Wrap stretched across the road between two power poles (someone's idea of a prank, or perhaps trying to steal a car, but I took my keys with me when I got out to cut it down)... the car should dutifully stop whenever there is an unknown object in the road. I once heard a story (dunno if it's true) about a UPS driver that stopped at a cardboard box in the street, only to find a 2 year old boy playing inside. If he'd just assumed it was empty things would have been very bad. I've got faith that autonomous cars will eventually overcome all of this, but they definitely have a long road ahead of them. ;)

      --
      Which has more power: the hammer, or the anvil?
    2. Re:Real Life? by PopeRatzo · · Score: 1, Funny

      Because real life in the UK doesn't involve a foot of snow on the ground.

      Or orthodontia.

      --
      You are welcome on my lawn.
    3. Re:Real Life? by arglebargle_xiv · · Score: 1

      Sheesh, this is a Land Rover we're talking about here, not some woosy hatchback. It doesn't need collision avoidance or other fancy gadgets, it just drives through or over everything, including deer, pedestrians, bikes, houses, hills, rivers, and most mountain ranges.

      The only thing you'd really need is a non-Land Rover following on behind to pick up the bits that fall off it from time to time, driven by a priest to deal with any Lucas Electric problems.

    4. Re:Real Life? by drinkypoo · · Score: 1

      So, does that mean a foot of snow on the ground, at night, with no pre-entry of the route?

      Why does everyone assume that foreknowledge of the route is going to be so difficult to come by? The automakers will generate that data the same way Google did, or they will license it from someone who will do so.

      --
      "You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
    5. Re:Real Life? by drinkypoo · · Score: 1

      So just like Google maps it will be out of date and not include road closures and/or new roads until 9 months later? Excellent. Can't wait for my autonomous car to try to drive over a road that hasn't existed for the last half year...

      The car still isn't going to drive through a fence, but it may take you down someone's driveway...

      --
      "You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
    6. Re:Real Life? by tehcyder · · Score: 2

      Because real life in the UK doesn't involve a foot of snow on the ground.

      Or orthodontia.

      Or weekly mass school shootings.

      --
      To have a right to do a thing is not at all the same as to be right in doing it
  2. At least they're close.. by RdeCourtney · · Score: 2

    At least they're close by to the factory so when they break down every 2 days they can get back on the road quickly! (I had an LR4 which was an awesome machine when, for the 1 month of 12 that I had it, there wasn't some problem with it!).

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    Insert signature here...
  3. Needs connectivity? by sunderland56 · · Score: 1

    They're designing a car that needs internet connectivity? This could bring a whole new meaning to the phrase "Dead Zone".

    1. Re:Needs connectivity? by bugs2squash · · Score: 1

      Well if they send it to Coventry nothing will communicate with it.

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      Nullius in verba
  4. Why Coventry? by PPH · · Score: 1

    Why don't they do their R&D around the parent companies headquarters? Let a bunch of autonomous Land Rovers loose in Mumbai and watch the antics ensue.

    --
    Have gnu, will travel.
  5. "We don't consider customers cargo" - Jaguar by Flytrap · · Score: 1
    In June 2015, Wolfgang Epple, head of research and development at JLR, was widely quotes as saying that JLR will never make a self driving car:

    Speaking through its head of research and development, Wolfgang Epple, JLR says customers should not expect an autonomous car from them as it has no plans to manufacture cars that drive themselves for one reason: They view owners of self-driving car or people who ride in them as cargo and don't consider their customers as such. ''We don't consider customers cargo. We don't want to build a robot that delivers the cargo from A to B"

    I wonder what changed in the last 6 months.

  6. Realistic testing by Tablizer · · Score: 1

    How do they emulate drunk pedestrians?

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    Table-ized A.I.
  7. Re:There are no British car companies by Righ · · Score: 1

    AC, Ariel, Ascari, Aston Martin, Briggs, Bristol, Caterham, Ginetta, London Taxi Company, McLaren, Morgan, Noble and TVR are all British owned, British based car companies.