The Smart City Hub would let Jaguar Land Rover test its vehicles without concerns about hurting other traffic participants.
Jaguar Land Rover has been developing and testing its self-driving system for years now. Now, though, they just made a big stride towards an autonomous future – real-life testing. However, unlike other manufacturers, it wants to build an entire fake city to test the technology and make the process faster.
For the project, Jaguar Land Rover partnered with Future Mobility Campus Ireland (FMCI). The plan is to develop a smart city hub containing 12 kilometers of roads, crossings, and parking spaces.
The facility will be a considerable factor in JLR perfecting its autonomous driving system. There, the company would collect valuable data from different road and traffic scenarios without risking to hurt anybody.
JLR will build the campus near the Shannon software hub, where the brand makes its electric and autonomous models. Of course, JLR won’t do all of this alone. It will get the help of software giants like Cisco, Seagate, Renovo, and Red Hat.
The vehicles JLR will use are Jaguar I-Pace electric crossovers. Meanwhile, the roads have sensors on all sides and advanced location systems to continually monitor the vehicle’s coordinates.
FMCI will be linked to 450km of connected highway and an air traffic corridor for pilotless aerial vehicles. The plan is to drive the autonomous cars on the freeway to determine the system’s consistency and safety.
A driver will also be behind the wheel to make sure nothing goes wrong. JLR already started a conversation with government bodies to ensure it gets the necessary permits for the tests.
With the hub’s construction expected to be complete by September 2021, the brand might start testing its self-driving system there, starting early 2022.
