Jaguar Land Rover conducts off-road autonomous-driving tests

GAYDON, England -- Automakers are close to perfecting the technology that can autonomously guide vehicles along highways with smooth pavement and clear lane markings and signs -- the kind of driving humans might handle easily with the cruise control engaged and a single finger hooked on the steering wheel.

But a suite of connected-car technologies under development at Jaguar Land Rover aims to improve vehicle safety in the kinds of places that might test the limitations of human drivers. That is, the places where Land Rovers might rove.

During a media event this month here at the company's sprawling engineering center on a former air force base in central England JLR officials let media test drive a fleet of vehicles with technologies that can see, steer, connect and measure the space above and around a vehicle, regardless of terrain.

With this effort, JLR is aiming to plant its flag as the company whose technologies improve safety regardless of where the vehicle is driven.

"We don't want to limit highly automated and fully autonomous technologies to tarmac," said Tony Harper, JLR's head of research. "When the driver turns off the road, we want this support and assistance to continue."

JLR officials wouldn't say how much the company is investing in its autonomous and connected-car research, but they acknowledged it is in the hundreds of millions of dollars -- a major commitment for an automaker that expects global sales this year of just over 500,000 vehicles.

JLR has been on a hiring spree and now has 9,000 engineers working at its Gaydon facility, and it has invested in InMotion, a startup that will provide an array of mobility services.

Nearly all of the expanded capabilities demonstrated in the fleet of specially built Range Rover and Jaguar F-Pace utility vehicles and XF and XE sedans make use of existing sensor and camera hardware, but software expands the amount of data collected from the environment around the vehicles. The data are used to power the various applications. 

Here's a look at some of the technologies under development at JLR and how they work.

• Surface identification: JLR believes the key to autonomous off-road driving is the vehicle's ability to identify the terrain it is about to drive over. Sensors in the front fascia scan the surface 16 feet ahead and can recognize mud, soft sand, grass, gravel and snow. The surface ID data are used to ensure the vehicle maintains maximum traction. 
• Terrain-based speed control: A stereo camera -- a camera with two lenses -- mounted in front of the rearview camera on the windshield reads the area ahead of the vehicle and identifies features such as ditches, hills and surface smoothness. Data from the suspension, steering, restraint system and other sensors also are used to help calculate and adjust speed.
• Off-road connected convoy: JLR is testing car-to-car communication off-road using a short-range communications system to link vehicles. The lead vehicle sends real-time terrain, location and suspension performance data to those following. Data are used to help drivers tackle difficult terrain.

• Over-horizon warning: This system links vehicles to road signs, traffic lights and other vehicles and warns drivers of hazards that are upcoming but not yet in sight, such as a stalled vehicle around a bend.
• Cooperative adaptive cruise control: Perhaps the most impressive and closest to production-ready, C-ACC, as JLR calls it, uses short-range communications and radar-based adaptive cruise control to link vehicles. Essentially, it gives the driver or autonomous vehicle at the head of a line instant control of braking and accelerating over those following. JLR says C-ACC could improve traffic flow because vehicles could follow each other closely at highway speeds.
• The system worked quickly and flawlessly in two XF sedans on a test track here. When the vehicle ahead slowed, the one behind applied its brakes immediately. Unlike today's adaptive cruise control systems, which react more slowly, there was no accordion effect of speeding up and slowing down with the distance changing between vehicles. 
• Roadwork assist: Another almost-ready technology, this one measures the distance on both sides of a vehicle when it is being driven in tight confines, such as through a construction area with narrow lanes. The system uses a stereo camera and image processing software to determine where the middle of the road is. A Jaguar XE test vehicle steered itself through an obstacle course at about 30 mph with cones on both sides of a narrow road. 
• Overhead clearance assist: JLR hopes to eliminate a common type of accident among SUV drivers who often forget they have bike racks and luggage carriers on top of their vehicles and damage them on garage entrances and tree branches. A camera measures the height of garage entrances and other obstacles, and the driver is warned if there is not enough clearance.
• Safe pull-away: A stereo camera scans the area ahead of the vehicle and prevents the driver from hitting the back of another vehicle at low speeds. If the camera sees an object in front of the vehicle and senses the driver using the accelerator, the brakes are applied automatically. This one also seems a sure bet for production.

JLR officials didn't say when any of the connected-car technologies under development would be available in production cars.