Jaguar starts driverless vehicle trials on public roads

Jaguar Land Rover (JLR), Britain's biggest car manufacturer, has begun the testing of driverless cars on the UK's public roads.

The vehicles, which had been on trial for several weeks on a half-mile route in the centre of Coventry, relied heavily upon sensors to detect traffic, pedestrians and signals, but also carried a human capable of reacting to real-time emergencies.

JLR was hoping to use the trials as part of its research into how the autonomous vehicles would coexist with road users and how best to replicate human behaviour.

JLR and Ford, both participants in the government's £20m UK Autodrive project, had reportedly been developing software that would allow cars to communicate with one another so that in the event that one vehicle stopped suddenly, the vehicle's computer system would alert trailing cars.

Nick Rogers, executive director for product engineering at JLR, said, "testing this self-driving project on public roads is so exciting, as the complexity of the environment allows us to find robust ways to increase road safety in the future."