JLR: Autonomous Driving Shouldn’t be Robotic

Jaguar Land Rover Ltd. aims to give future automated driving systems more human behavior by studying drivers and their decision-making processes in a variety of real-world conditions.

JLR is providing a specially equipped fleet of Jaguar cars and Land Rover SUVs to a £5.5 million ($7.9 million) Move-U.K. program headed by Robert Bosch GmbH. The vehicles will be used by employees of the city of Greenwich, England.

An array of sensors will monitor how drivers react in complex everyday situations, including bad weather, merging into traffic, road construction, approaching emergency vehicles and right-of-way decisions at intersections and roundabouts. JLR will use the information from the three-year study to fine-tune automated driving systems it is developing for next-generation vehicles.

The company says such technologies will perform better and be more readily accepted by consumers if they mimic human behavior. JLR also plans to share results with insurance companies to help them develop policies for owners of vehicles with autonomous driving capabilities.

Move-U.K. is one of eight projects recently launched under the government-backed Intelligent Mobility Fund. JLR also is participating in one of the other programs, which focuses on vehicle-to-vehicle and vehicle-to-infrastructure communications—including advance warning of approaching emergency vehicles.