The group strategy director of Jaguar Land Rover believes the popular view of autonomous cars as ‘driverless’ is wrong, and that the driver will remain in ultimate control of his company’s products.
Adrian Hallmark told the website Fleet News that “autonomous technologies will instead work in the background to assist and enhance them.”
Speaking at a new technology showcase, he said cars will become safer not because they are driving themselves, but because the driver is supported by a plethora of unobtrusive new features.
“Technology will help improve traffic flow and air quality, reduce congestion and reduce the potential for accidents,” Hallmark added.
He pointed at new technologies such as Roadwork Assist – which were demonstrated to Fleet News in a Jaguar XE – that uses a forward-facing stereo camera to gently and accurately guide the car through narrow roadworks, detecting cones and barriers, centralising the vehicle between them.
The system is the first step in fully autonomous driving through roadworks, says JLR.
The website adds that the next stage of car-to-car autonomous technology will be co-operative adaptive cruise control, increases the level of autonomous driving by enhancing current radar technology with a direct connection to the car in front; when they brake, the car behind immediately does the same, reducing following distance.
JLR director of connected technologies and apps Peter Virk believes it could be possible to connect cars to traffic lights and other infrastructure, so inner-city drives can be timed so they don’t stop at red lights.
“In less than three years, I predict that every car sold in the world will be a connected car,” he said.