JLR, Ford, Tata Motors collaboration demonstrates driverless cars in UK
22 Jun 2017
A collaboration between Jaguar Land Rover, Ford and Tata Motors, demonstrated how autonomous cars could talk to each other at a demonstration of driverless cars in UK.
Later this year trials will be held on public roads.
The demonstration included warning drivers of an approaching vehicle and offering real-time traffic information.
The first set of public road trials will take place in Coventry and Milton Keynes, where pedestrian areas will get a fleet of up to 40 self-driving pavement-based 'pods' by the end of the year.
Though cars that could talk to each other formed part of the driver-less revolution, currently human presence was required at the wheel.
The demonstration also showed how connected cars could detect the presence of other connected cars on the approach to a junction and warn drivers if there was a high probability of a collision.
"The successful completion of the proving ground trials marks a significant milestone for the project team, and we are now looking forward to demonstrating the benefits of these exciting new technologies in the real-world settings of Milton Keynes and Coventry," said Tim Armitage, UK Autodrive project director.
"Once the technology becomes widely available, we anticipate huge potential benefits in terms of road safety, improved traffic flow and general access to transport, so we're really excited about being able to demonstrate this on real roads."
According to BBC's Top Gear, there was no stopping the fact that autonomous cars were coming in a big way and by 2025, the industry would be worth £900 billion.
Land Rover's, autonomous Range Rover Sport was only a prototype for now, but was proof that cars could be controlled by computers too.
The autonomous car comes programmed with 'level four' automation, which means it does all the arduous driving without ever expecting the driver to intervene.
