Land Rover plans to spend up to £3,700,000 on the development of AI-assisted self-driving car technology. It is expected that the “smart” autopilot will eventually be able to assume direct control of the vehicle during bad weather or when traversing extremely bad terrain.
The so-called CORTEX project provides for the creation of a multi-dimensional sensor matrix that would support autonomous driving up to the level 4 or 5. The matrix will consist of laser rangefinders, light sensors, radars, all-around-view cameras and microphones. All information from the sensors will be processed in real time without interruptions, allowing the AI to make informed decisions and choose the safest ways to proceed.
Land Rover has enlisted the help of Birmingham University researchers for the project. The team will test autonomous vehicles on dedicated testing sites across Great Britain, adjust the sensor array and iron out the relevant machine learning algorithms.
Land Rover is by far not the only car manufacturer to be looking into the self-driving car tech. There was a stir in the media late last year caused by rumors that Ford may be working on an autopilot feature for its SUV lineup. Preliminary sources suggest it might be implemented in the form of a small AI-powered computer platform that will detect traffic obstacles and find ways around them.
Photo: topspeed.com