LONDON: Britain's biggest carmaker Jaguar Land Rover said it will create a fleet of more than 100 research vehicles over the next four years to test autonomous and connected technology, with the first models to hit the streets later this year.
Jaguar Land Rover, maker of Range Rover 4x4s and sportier luxury saloons, will drive the initial models on a new 41-mile (66 km) test route on motorways and urban roads near its headquarters and plants in central England.
The market for autonomous driving is worth 900 billion pounds (US$1.29 trillion) worldwide, according to the government, but needs to overcome legal obstacles including determining who would be responsible in the event of an accident.
Britain announced plans in March to test cars on motorways and launched a consultation on Monday to change insurance and motoring rules as it pursues plans to allow the public to use driverless cars on the streets by 2020.
Jaguar Land Rover's Head of Research Tony Harper said the firm's technology, which includes a three-dimensional advanced view of the street ahead to recognise barriers and radio signal communication between cars, could reduce hazards.
"Our connected and automated technology could help improve traffic flow, cut congestion and reduce the potential for accidents," Harper said.
In Britain, driverless car testing will need a person to be present and able to take control should the need arise, the Department for Transport has said.
Carmakers are ploughing billions of pounds into autonomous technology with Ford already part of a government-sanctioned autonomous testing project in England and Volvo planning to test driverless cars in London next year.
Japan's Nissan aims to build its first mass-market autonomous car at its north of England facility in Sunderland, Britain's biggest single car plant.
However, traditional automakers face competition from rivals such as Tesla and technology firms such as Alphabet Inc unit Google, which wants eventually to be able to deploy fully autonomous vehicles without human controls.
China players are also getting into the act. An automotive venture backed by China tech giant Tencent aims to launch an electric self-driving car before 2020, entering a crowded field.
Future Mobility, backed by Tencent and Hon Hai Precision Industries, is one of an expanding field of China-backed ventures that aim to take on Tesla Motors Inc as green energy car sales boom in China. Although the venture seeks to produce premium cars like Tesla, it will attempt a different strategy from the US-based company that began with relatively limited production and focuses on a single model at a time, CEO Carsten Breitfeld said in an interview.
"Right from the beginning we define the platform, right from the beginning we define the production process to be mass production and right from the beginning we think of more than one model, a family of models, defined from this platform," Breitfeld said.
