Jaguar Land Rover has announced its plans in invest in a 41 mile living laboratory on UK roads in order to test a fleet of 100 connected cars in real-life conditions. The test will include the use of autonomous, self-driving technology on British roads, and has been endorsed by the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills.

The UK Connected Intelligent Transport Environment (UK-CITE) project will see the establishment of the first UK test route capable of testing both vehicle-to-vehicle and vehicle-to-infrastructure systems on public roads.

The three year project will cover 41 miles of roads around Coventry and Solihull, and will focus on automotive safety, with over the horizon warnings and car-to-car communication that enable emergency services vehicles to warn other drivers of their approach both on the schedule for testing.

Among the communication technologies being worked on are smart roadside infrastructure like traffic lights and overhead gantries that would enable information to be shared at very high speeds between cars by acting as relays.

The £5.5m project is being partially funded with a £3.41m grant from Innovate UK, the UK governments innovation agency. The UK government has been heavily involved in supporting the development of connected and autonomous car technology, with an emphasis placed on improving safety and managing traffic flow.

“This real-life laboratory will allow Jaguar Land Rovers research team and project partners to test new connected and autonomous vehicle technologies on five different types of roads and junctions,” said Dr Wolfgang Epple, director of research and technology at Jaguar Land Rover. “Similar research corridors already exist in other parts of Europe so this test route is exactly the sort of innovation infrastructure the UK needs to compete globally.

“The connected and autonomous vehicle features we will be testing will improve road safety, enhance the driving experience, reduce the potential for traffic jams and improve traffic flow. These technologies will also help us meet the increasing customer demand for connected services whilst on the move.”