In the world of self driving cars, battles all over the place are heating up, in terms of “hardware” – the vehicles themselves, where there has been rumors of the likes of Uber making an attempt to take on Google with their very own brand of self-driving car. Well, over in Bristol, UK, there is a bunch of companies known as the Venturer Consortium, and this group intends to implement UK’s very first independent test site for driverless car technologies. Making use of a BAE-modified Bowler Wildcat that is based off a Land Rover Defender, this behemoth of an off road vehicle is already starting to go through the paces.
It is said that this particular ride is fully autonomous as at press time, and even better, it comes equipped with a remote kill switch – just in case, you know, some rogue intelligence agency agent gets a different idea and decides to take off in one of these. There will be multiple sensor mounting points located at the front and on the roof, which would make it a whole lot more convenient for researchers to play around with different hardware combinations.
There will also be a 360-degree mounted camera on the bonnet that will send additional visual data into the computer, so that the ride would remain on course as it reads important road signs. Since this is but a prototype, who knows how different the final product will be, right?
Filed in .. Source: engadget