British carmaker Jaguar Land Rover will launch a fleet of more than 100 autonomous and semi-autonomous vehicles on UK roads by 2020. Dubbed Connected and Autonomous Vehicle (CAV) technologies, the vehicles will cruise along 41 miles of roads near Coventry and Solihull beginning later this year, with the first-stage testing tech that allows cars to communicate directly with each other and with infrastructure like signs and traffic lights.

While the company hasn't revealed all the tech inside the new test vehicles, it did detail a few of the key technologies. First is the "Roadwork Assist" feature, which uses a front-facing 3D camera to scan the road for cones and barriers. In a regular car, this feature would chart a course around the obstruction and provide steering assistance. In an autonomous car, it could be used to navigate a way through roadworks without any human intervention at all.

The "Safe Pullaway" feature uses another camera to monitor the area in front of the vehicle, the idea being to prevent the driver (or computer) from being overeager with the accelerator and bumping the car in front before it has had a chance to pull away. If the system detects that the car in front isn't moving, it swiftly applies the brakes.

Finally, there's a vehicle-to-vehicle communication system called "Over the Horizon Warning." If a car is slowing down or has stopped, it sends out a warning to nearby vehicles. It could also be used with emergency vehicles, sending out a warning even before cars enter the vicinity of an accident or obstruction.

















The launch of Jaguar Land Rover's CAV technologies follows its research into autonomous off-road driving, which uses a mixture of cameras, lidar, radar, and ultrasonic sound to give vehicles a better idea of the type of surface they're driving on and plot 3D paths around obstacles. There's even an "off-road connected convoy" function that allows vehicles to share their location, as well as details on suspension and wheels. The company said the tech could be used on automated safaris, sort of like the cars in Jurassic Park, minus the tracks and rampaging dinosaurs.

While Jaguar Land Rover's autonomous vehicle fleet will be one of the largest to hit UK roads, it's not the first. In January, GATEway group announced that several of its driverless pods would be deployed in Greenwich, London, with routes that include residential streets and areas close to the O2 Arena. Invited users will trial the pods first before they're opened up to the general public or are rolled out in Bristol, Coventry, and Milton Keynes at a later date.

Yesterday, the UK government started the process of drafting laws that could eventually govern the use of driverless cars on public roads. A consultation process is taking place, and members of the public and relevant businesses are invited to have their say on the topic.