JLR-led connected car project wins £4.7m funding for autonomous vehicle research

Jaguar Land Rover (JLR), along with a consortium of connected car specialists, have been awarded £4.7 million in Government funding to help autonomous vehicles (AV) navigate complex road patterns and traffic conditions.

The grant funding was won from the Centre for Connected and Autonomous Vehicles, which is part of the Department for Transport and the Department for Business, Energy & Industrial Strategy.

The JLR-led consortium, Autoplex, is made up of Highways England, Ricardo, Siemens, Transport for West Midlands and the University of Warwick. Autoplex is being joined by another company called Inrix, a connected car specialist, to work on the project.

Inrix will be helping to provide real-time, historical and predictive data, including road hazards, traffic speeds and roadway restrictions to JLR vehicles during the project.

There are five levels of vehicle automation (see below) and the Autoplex project is expecting to move current technologies from level 2 to level 3.

Autoplex will develop fully- and semi-automated vehicle technologies through simulation and public road testing both on motorways and in urban environments in the West Midlands.

The project will combine data from on-vehicle sensors, information from/to infrastructure and real-time local dynamic mapping to help improve the way vehicles navigating complex junctions.

Avery Ash, autonomous vehicle lead at Inrix, said: “Inrix will provide road hazards, traffic speeds and restrictions that will be used to improve the safety and effectiveness of the vehicle executing complex maneuvers, including navigation of roundabouts and merging into traffic.

“The ability for AVs to identify upcoming route and roadway conditions based on real-time data will significantly improve their overall driving performance.”