Land Rover Stepping Into Autonomous Off-Roading

  • Jul 12, 2016
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The Britsh car manufacturer aims to develop autonomous SUVs for its future portfolio

Land Rover connected car convoy

Autonomous cars have picked up quite well within the car community, however, the technology has yet to go a long way before it enters mainstream motoring. The fatal Tesla autonomous car crash made headlines a while back, and we also heard about autonomous race cars being developed as well.

And now, it is time for autonomous off-road vehicles. In an attempt to develop advanced off-road vehicles which can think like humans, Jaguar Land Rover is undertaking research using its existing vehicles.

The British marque has demonstrated a number of new technologies that could possibly be developed to assist in the manufacturing of future autonomous cars. The upcoming autonomous Land Rovers will make extensive use of surface monitoring technologies and even connected cars to work.

Land Rover has shelled out millions of pounds for its autonomous all-terrain driving research project and wants to make self-driving cars usable across a wide range of on and off-road conditions.

Land Rover terrain mapping

Tony Harper, Head of Research, Jaguar Land Rover, said: “Our all-terrain autonomy research isn’t just about the car driving itself on a motorway or in extreme off-road situations. It’s about helping both the driven and autonomous car make their way safely through any terrain or driving situation."

The demonstrated technologies include terrain mapping systems, which will intimate the driver whenever the vehicle senses a change in the type of ground it's treading on. For instance, if the vehicle moves from tarmac to loose gravel, the SUV will flash visual and audio messages for the driver to switch the driving mode.

The company also demonstrated how connected cars could be used to share off-road data with vehicles following behind. Once this tech is brought into effect, Jaguar Land Rover cars will be able to share wheel slip data, differential lock data, suspension travel data, etc, for a particular patch of terrain. In this way, the following vehicles could adjust its settings in advance to suit that particular terrain.

The key to doing this is via surface identification and 3D path sensing technology, which uses cameras, radar, ultrasonic waves and LIDAR sensors to make the car aware of its surroundings and itself. The advanced sensors will help the car detect the type of surface it's being driven on, thereby making it more compliant for autonomous use. And just like human beings are aware of their contact with the ground via their feet, these autonomous SUVs will be aware of the tyres touching the earth. 

We believe that autonomous SUVs could be more useful in off-road situations than an autonomous car used on a highway or, say, city traffic. Reason being, the skill required for the driver to tackle an off-road terrain are much higher than those required to drive a car on paved roads. Autonomous SUVs could be an easy way to taste the thrill of off-road driving. Also, since off-roading is practised at slow speeds, it would be easier to develop a safe system as the potential danger of a high-speed crash is automatically omitted.

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