U.K. Starts Connected Vehicle Road Tests

The U.K. has begun testing a fleet of connected vehicles from Ford, Jaguar Land Rover and Tata Motors as part of the country’s Autodrive program.

The £20 million ($24 million) initiative will test connected and autonomous vehicles over the next three years. Connected vehicles will share location, direction, speed and other information—such as aggressive braking—with each other to help improve safety and reduce traffic congestion.

Vehicles also will receive real-time updates from connected traffic lights so drivers can change speeds to optimize traffic flow. Information about parking availability also will be shared. Other features of the program will include emergency vehicle warning, intersection management assist—including 4-way stop priority—and traffic and road condition alerts.

In addition, several automated driving systems will be evaluated. This week initial demonstrations included automated cruise control with the ability to change lanes and pass another vehicle on the highway.

Trials will be conducted on private roadways in Milton Keynes and Coventry next year before moving to public roads in 2018.