If you’ve ever thought that life would be so much easier with a co-pilot, someone who intuitively understood your needs and met them with out asking, then you’re in luck. Well, sort of.
Jaguar Land Rover are developing a ‘self-learning car‘, which is designed to reduce driver distraction and take the chore out of driving. Using a clever algorithm, the car learns your habits and preferences, so that its systems can automatically implement them at the appropriate time. Imagine, for example, that you like to listen to BBC Radio 2 in the mornings, but unwind with Classic FM in the evenings. The car will identify you from your key fob or phone and programme the radio according to the time of day.
Although it sounds a bit far fetched, development is actually in the advanced stages. The system was demonstrated at Jaguar Land Rover’s Future Tech day in Gaydon, in July where guests were able to test the features in a replica ‘home to work’ journey.Thanks to advances in artificial intelligence techniques, the car can start making predictions after just two weeks of driving. Cleverly, the algorithm also continuously learns and improves the automated functions over time. Data is stored in the cloud and can be permanently deleted on request by the vehicle owner. You can also over-ride the service at any time, as the system always prioritises inputs from the driver – meaning that arguments on which radio station to listen to are still entirely possible!
During the journey a variety of scenarios were presented, including the use of predictive massage seats, automatic media source selection and an intelligent phone reminder that ensures you don’t leave home without your communications device.
This is a very exciting development from Jaguar Land Rover and it heralds a new era of comfort for drivers. If they could also find a way to make the car serve us breakfast on the move then it would just about be perfect!