Photo: Land Rover
The new Land Rover Defender packs a mighty technological punch, but Land Rover may have been holding out to the world. They’re also thinking of putting some remote control tech on it.
The Defender comes with a 3D Scout system, which could be expanded to include a self-driving mode, Land Rover Chief Product Engineer Stuart Frith tells autocar. The technology is there and testing is already underway, so a self-driving Defender is only a matter of time. They just have to wait for legislation to catch up, so they can introduce it.
According to Frith, drivers could get out of the Defender and remote control it on short distances, in order to have the best vantage point. That is to say, the remote control option would come in handy only in certain situations – say, in those when existing technology would still not suffice to get out of a tight spot.
“If you’re in a tight spot and you’re on your own, you can still get out of the car and ‘spot it’ yourself,”Frith says. In order for the function to be enabled, the driver would have to have his wearable Activity Key on him, so that the 3D Scout system could verify he was in control.
“[The Defender is] capable of being able to do that in terms of its architecture,” Frith continues. “We’ve got as far as understanding how to do it, and we’ve run prototypes as well.”
Back in 2015, Land Rover used a smartphone to remote-control a Range Rover Sport on an off-road course, so it’s not like interest in this is new. With the Defender, the technology is already there but it needs to be built on.
Another feature Land Rover is considering would allow drivers to live-stream journey footage to the cloud, through Online Pack and the Defender’s EVA 2.0 architecture, the publication notes. It doesn’t offer any details on a possible timeframe for either development, unfortunately.
The Defender comes with a 3D Scout system, which could be expanded to include a self-driving mode, Land Rover Chief Product Engineer Stuart Frith tells autocar. The technology is there and testing is already underway, so a self-driving Defender is only a matter of time. They just have to wait for legislation to catch up, so they can introduce it.
According to Frith, drivers could get out of the Defender and remote control it on short distances, in order to have the best vantage point. That is to say, the remote control option would come in handy only in certain situations – say, in those when existing technology would still not suffice to get out of a tight spot.
“If you’re in a tight spot and you’re on your own, you can still get out of the car and ‘spot it’ yourself,”Frith says. In order for the function to be enabled, the driver would have to have his wearable Activity Key on him, so that the 3D Scout system could verify he was in control.
“[The Defender is] capable of being able to do that in terms of its architecture,” Frith continues. “We’ve got as far as understanding how to do it, and we’ve run prototypes as well.”
Back in 2015, Land Rover used a smartphone to remote-control a Range Rover Sport on an off-road course, so it’s not like interest in this is new. With the Defender, the technology is already there but it needs to be built on.
Another feature Land Rover is considering would allow drivers to live-stream journey footage to the cloud, through Online Pack and the Defender’s EVA 2.0 architecture, the publication notes. It doesn’t offer any details on a possible timeframe for either development, unfortunately.
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