JLR launches collaborative V2V trial

JAGUAR Land Rover (JLR) has got the old team back together, joining forces with one-time owner Ford for a trial that pioneers the United Kingdom’s first vehicle-to-vehicle (V2V) information-sharing network.

Together with JLR’s parent company Tata, the British and North American car-makers are collaborating on a standardised system that allows vehicles of different brands to understand a universal language in a bid to make roads safer and cleaner.

If successful, the system will allow vehicles to communicate with roadside infrastructure as well as other compatible vehicles for real-time streaming of traffic conditions, weather and other environmental information.

The project is part of JLR’s four-year strategy in which it will create a 100-strong fleet of vehicles to develop and demonstrate a wide range of automated technologies including the so-called V2V system.

Its latest advances were wheeled out at the MIRA vehicle testing centre last week as part of the UK Autodrive project that develops and showcases cutting-edge technology in the area of autonomous driving with a consortium of automotive businesses.

The technology that the various organisations are refining will enable vehicles to access information that can be used to plan more efficient driving, avoid hazards and allow drivers to focus on the more enjoyable aspects of driving rather than the tedious.

For example, traffic lights could inform vehicle cruise control systems or driver of the exact speed the car needs to travel at to arrive only at green lights, allowing traffic to flow more freely. With fewer stop-and-start actions, vehicles would use less fuel and cut emissions.

In addition to roadside equipment communication, car-to-car information sharing would allow leading vehicles to report potentially hazardous conditions to following vehicles, allowing evasive actions such as braking or planning an alternative route.

In more emergency situations where there is less time to plan evasive action, an ‘electronic brake light assist’ feature warns following cars that a brake has been applied severely or unexpectedly, allowing vehicles to prepare or also apply their brakes.

The systems are also capable of performing the more conventional autonomous car duties of keeping a vehicle in a freeway lane, avoiding other road users and maintaining a constant speed.

The demonstration successfully proved that three of the seven features the car-makers are working on are effective under the MIRA test centre conditions.

UK Autodrive is also addressing public concerns the concerns regarding some autonomous technology as well as the potential for cyber attacks on an increasingly technology-dependent automotive landscape.

JLR is a driving force behind autonomous and vehicle communication technology, and has already explored off-road autonomous driving and research programs that may allow cars to make decisions more like humans.

Further tests and demonstrations are planned at the centre in 2017 to follow up on the latest trials, and the project will culminate in public road demonstrations in 2018.