Land Rover CORTEX project dedicated to off-road autonomous driving

ABU DHABI: The self-driving concept is being tested around the globe by eminent car manufacturers and technology giants like Google. It is evident that after a few years down the line, the concept will be fool-proof and safe. What’s interesting is that while other car makers are working to make city rides and inter-state travels easy, this car maker from Britain is busy mastering the art of off-road autonomous driving.

Land Rover has taken the self-driving technology to an altogether new level with its CORTEX project. The project is about researching and preparing futuristic technology that can enable cars to go off-road autonomously.

Under CORTEX, the company is working on a technology called 5D technique that provides several inputs like video, acoustic, radar and light detection and distance sensing (LiDAR) to the vehicle’s systems to learn. Over a period of time, the data fed would improve the response and awareness of the vehicle’s systems, enabling it to perform and behave differently in various weather conditions and on different terrains.

Chris Holmes, the manager at Jaguar Land Rover Connected and Autonomous Vehicle Research said, “It’s important that we develop our self-driving vehicles with the same capability and performance customers expect from all Jaguars and Land Rovers.”

“Self-driving is an inevitability for the automotive industry and ensuring that our autonomous offering is the most enjoyable, capable and safe is what drives us to explore the boundaries of innovation. CORTEX gives us the opportunity to work with some fantastic partners whose expertise will help us realize this vision in the near future”, he added.

The company officials said that the company is dedicated to providing a fully-automated or semi-automated driving experience depending on customers’ preference. Also, the company wants to offer self-driving capabilities in the widest range possible.

Currently, the team at Land Rover is reportedly working on sensors and algorithms to make it all worthwhile while the physical testing of the technology is being done on tracks around the UK.