New apps will drive Rangies remotely

Published Jun 16, 2015

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Whitley, West Midlands - How you see this video depends on how you feel about sharing the road with cars that drive themselves.

In it Jaguar Land Rover shows us some of the technologies it's developing to make autonomous driving practicable in the near future - starting with a smartphone app that lets you drive your Rangie remotely.

You can steer, accelerate, brake and even shift in and out of low range while you walk alongside the car at up to about 6km/h.

Insane? Not really. You can reverse your car out of a parking space when some idiot has parked too close for you to get in, or you can be your own off-road spotter, guiding your car over difficult terrain while constantly checking clearances, and seeing exactly where the wheels are during rock-crawling.

As an extreme example, you could wade through a stream to check that it's safely fordable and then, instead of wading back again, you could bring the car to you.

It only works when you're within 10 metres of the car - with the key in your pocket - and it'll stop the car if you get too close, to prevent you from running yourself over.

TURN AND TURN ABOUT

This enables the Range Rover to do what most drivers hate almost as much as parallel parking - a 180-degree multi-point turn.

It uses sensors to asses the available space, and avoid pedestrians, vehicles and solid objects, asks the driver to confirm the manoeuvre, and then takes over gear selection, steering, acceleration and braking to make as many moves as necessary to turn the car around.

The idea, says research director Dr Wolfgang Epple, is not only to build a car that will drive itself, but one that will also co-operate with a human driver to make driving safer and more fun.

The difference between his approach to autonomous driving and that of other makers is that Land Rovers are not only driven on smooth, well-marked and signposted roads.

Land Rover is working on a new generation of sensors that will work in any environment, in any weather, using radar, Lidar, cameras, ultrasonics and even structured light technology, so that its cars can function in the real world, without relying on road markings, traffic lights and speed-limit signs.

Epple calls it the 'Solo Car' - which is a scary concept until you factor in that computers don't drink and drive, suffer from road rage or get distracted.

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