Yahoo Autos Land Rover Wants to Let You Off-Road Autonomously
Jaguar-Land Rover's vision is to give you the 'ultimate safari experience' by allowing the driver to engage autonomous drive anywhere, be that on or off the paved roads. But the research project is not just about the car driving itself even in extreme off-road situations. Land Rover says it's about helping both the driven and autonomous car make their way safely through any terrain or driving situation.
Of course all-terrain autonomous drive would mean the car could continue on its own if there's a road under construction with cones and a contraflow, a snow-covered part in the mountains or a muddy dirt road, taking control even if the driver wasn't sure how to tackle an obstacle or hazard ahead. All you need to achieve that is a fleet of cameras aided by ultrasonic, radar and LIDAR sensors to detect surface conditions (for now) 16 feet ahead of the car, flawless car-to-car communication using the same protocols, and a level of artificial intelligence that doesn't quite exist yet.
Either way this goes, the technology will make cars more capable while turning you into a much lazier driver even at a semi-autonomous level. But JLR is spending 'multi-million pounds' on the program, so I guess it's time to get ready for a safari that's quite the opposite of a Camel Trophy.
