JAGUAR LAND ROVER DEVELOPS SMART CITY HUB TO TEST SELF-DRIVING VEHICLE TECHNOLOGY

16 November 2020

  • Future Mobility Campus Ireland (FMCI) collaboration will allow real-world trials
  • Facility will provide research opportunities for autonomous, connected, electrified and shared vehicles
  • Testbed covers 12km of roads combining smart junctions and connected car parks
  • The Jaguar I-PACE - the world’s first premium all-electric performance SUV, will be used for the testbed trials

Monday 16 November 2020, Whitley, UK – Jaguar Land Rover is partnering with global software, mobility and telecoms companies to create a smart city hub that will allow real-world testing of connected technology where self-driving vehicles share the streets with cars, pedestrians and cyclists. 

The Future Mobility Campus Ireland (FMCI) will be a collaborative testbed spread across 12km of public roads, providing the facilities and expertise to harness valuable sensor data, simulate a variety of road environments and traffic scenarios and trial new technologies. As part of the trials, the all-electric Jaguar I-PACE will be deployed for testing.  

The testbed will advance Jaguar Land Rover’s research into autonomous, connected, electrified and shared vehicles – a key part of the company’s commitment to making societies safer and healthier with pioneering technology.  

The smart city zone provides a first-class facility for global companies to work together and develop world-leading technology, from autonomous vehicles to connected infrastructure. The testbed provides an opportunity to test in the real world and help answer some of the questions posed by the future of mobility in a collaborative and efficient way

Russell Vickers
CEO of FMCI

The real-world facility will be equipped with sensors throughout the site, along with high-accuracy location systems, a data management and control centre and self-driving prototype vehicles. It will feature smart junctions, connected roads, autonomous parking and electric vehicle charging as well as links to a 450km stretch of connected highway and a managed air traffic corridor for unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) from Shannon airport along the Shannon Estuary in Ireland. 

Jaguar Land Rover is a lead partner of the FMCI and will collaborate with a host of other global technology companies to develop the facility, including Cisco, Seagate, Renovo, Red Hat, Valeo and Mergon. Traditionally such testing sites have been established overseas. The FMCI provides Jaguar Land Rover with a key research site next to an existing facility: its Shannon software hub. 

This partnership with FMCI provides us with a real-world facility to trial our emerging autonomous, connected, electrified and shared technology in a strategic location. Collaborating with top-tier software companies will allow us to develop our future systems more efficiently.

John Cormican
General Manager, Shannon, Ireland, Jaguar Land Rover

Further information

About Jaguar Land Rover 

Jaguar Land Rover is the UK’s largest automotive manufacturer, built around two iconic British car brands. Land Rover is the world’s leading manufacturer of premium all-wheel-drive vehicles. Jaguar is one of the world’s premier luxury marques, as well as being the first ever brand to offer a premium all-electric performance SUV, the Jaguar I-PACE. 

At Jaguar Land Rover we are driven by a desire to deliver class-leading vehicles, providing experiences people love, for life. Our products are in demand around the globe and in 2019 we sold 557,706 vehicles in 127 countries. 

At heart we are a British company, with two major design and engineering sites, three vehicle manufacturing facilities, an Engine Manufacturing Centre and soon to be opened Battery Assembly Centre. We also have vehicle plants in China, Brazil, India, Austria and Slovakia. Three of our seven technology hubs are in the UK – Manchester, Warwick (NAIC) and London – with additional sites in Shannon, Ireland, Portland, USA, Budapest, Hungary, and Changshu, China. 

We have a growing portfolio of electrified products across our model range, embracing fully electric, plug-in hybrid and mild-hybrid vehicles, as well as continuing to offer the latest diesel and petrol engines, giving our customers even more choice. 

We are confident that our comprehensive strategy, exciting pipeline of market-leading vehicles and innovative approach to technology and mobility will see us continue to progress towards Destination Zero, our mission to shape future mobility with zero emissions, zero accidents and zero congestion. 

 

Jaguar Land Rover PR social channels: 

- Twitter: @JLR_News 

- LinkedIn: @JaguarLandRover 

 

For more information visit www.media.jaguarlandrover.com or contact: 

 

Linda Luong  

Corporate Affairs Officer – Global External Communications 

lluong@jaguarlandrover.com 

+44 7384 232691 

Notes to Editors

For more information about Destination Zero please visit https://www.jaguarlandrover.com/2019/strategy 

 

About Future Mobility Campus Ireland (FMCI)  

FMCI was founded with the sole purpose of creating and delivering future mobility testbed facilities for stimulating research, development and innovation in the area of Autonomous Connected Electric Shared Vehicles (ACES), including Connected and Autonomous Vehicles (CAV) in Ireland. The testbed will be located in the Limerick-Shannon metropolitan area at Shannon Free Zone, Shannon, Co.Clare. 

FMCI aims to deliver an ACES test facility located in real-world settings, providing technology companies and researchers the ability to test and enhance their innovations. The test facility consists of a road network that is retrofitted with interconnected state of the art sensing and telecommunication technologies. That are fully accessible and controlled via a dedicated control centre. The target users/customers of this facility include national and international automotive and technology providers that are interested in testing their innovations in real-world settings before the product release phase.