Semi-autonomous vehicles have been largely relegated to the highway, but Jaguar Land Rover has shown off a new prototype which can successfully drive itself in the city.
The Range Rover Sport prototype has been equipped with an assortment of cameras and sensors that enable the crossover to obey traffic lights and negotiate roundabouts as well as T-junctions.
The latter type of intersection is especially challenging, as some T-junctions are controlled by traffic lights while others require drivers to obey the right-of-way. This is relatively simple for humans to understand, but it gets a lot more complex when you need to teach a vehicle how to react.
The company says their Autonomous Urban Drive technology brings them “one step closer to achieving ‘level four’ autonomy in Jaguar Land Rover’s future vehicles within the next decade.” To use the system, drivers simply enter their destination into the navigation system and the prototype determines the best route and then starts driving.
Jaguar Land Rover demonstrated the technology at the Midlands Proving Ground on June 22nd, and the company will begin road tests in Milton Keynes and Coventry by the end of this year. The tests will initially be conducted on closed roads, but that restriction will be removed in the future.
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