Jaguar Land Rover’s Future Is A Driverless Electric Van. Wait, What?

• Project Vector is autonomy-ready and expected to go operational in late-2021.
• It features a flat floor, which houses the drivetrain and battery.
• JLR believes shared mobility is the future of transportation.

Jaguar Land Rover has unveiled Project Vector, an autonomy-ready electric vehicle for future mobility solutions. This bold new concept, which is nothing but a van with nifty sliding doors, is a part of the company’s ‘Destination Zero Journey.’ 

Highlights of this new direction include zero emissions, zero congestion and zero accidents. JLR aims to make roads safer, cleaner and healthier. Coming back to the van, it has compact dimensions measuring under four metres in length. It is designed for cityscapes, with all the battery and drivetrain packed into a flat floor. This, in turn, opens up cabin space and the Project Vector has plenty of it. It can be used privately, shared, or can even take up commercial duties. So that means you can use it to ferry people privately or in a shared manner.

Developed at the National Automotive Innovation Centre, it aims to address the big picture of how customers connect with mobility solutions and the infrastructural challenges for autonomous shared mobility. Speaking on the occasion, Land Rover Chief Executive Officer, Ralf Speth, said, “Jaguar Land Rover understands the trends shaping modern societies. Project Vector shows Jaguar Land Rover as a leader in innovation to make our societies safer and healthier, and the environment cleaner.” 

Apart from the fancy doors, to our relief, we can also see a steering wheel and pedals. This means although autonomy-ready, you might also be able to drive the Project Vector when it comes out in the distant future (late-2021 in the UK). Jaguar Land Rover strongly believes that shared mobility is the future and this is their answer to that. Meanwhile, we are still waiting for the SVR variant of the new F-Type.