Jeep develops SUVs that can drive themselves off-road

Jeep remains true to its roots and takes an unpaved road to the arms race based on autonomous technology. The brand has begun testing a fleet of Grand Cherokee-based prototypes equipped with experimental technology that allows the large SUVs to self-propelled on challenging off-road trails.

“We are addressing challenges that are, in a sense, greater than what you experience in on-road autonomy,” explained Neda Cvijetic, the head of artificial intelligence and autonomous driving at Stellantis, as he drove in one of the prototypes on the outskirts of Moab. drives. Utah.

Jeep had little to say about its off-road autonomous technology; we don’t even know the name of the system yet. The company clarified that it’s developing this technology exclusively for the cars in its lineup, suggesting that – at the time of writing – the system won’t appear in a Ram, and the prototypes it’s testing in Moab look, at first glance pretty good looking. The main difference between the Grand Cherokee-based test mules and the Grand Cherokee sitting in front of your nearest Jeep dealer is the armada of sensors and other hardware installed on the roof.

Inside, it’s a similar story: it looks like standard Grand Cherokee fare, except for a large screen installed over the touchscreen that displays the infotainment system. One of the images released by the marque shows a Grand Cherokee in a green box marked ‘lead’, seemingly confirming that the system can detect other cars in addition to various obstacles in the path. It may also be able to track other cars.

While this could just be a backup system, the video posted to YouTube by Jeep shows Cvijetic using a tablet offering various driving-related options. There is a live video stream and a control panel with functions labeled ‘target speed’, ‘vehicle speed’, ‘target side angle’ and ‘vehicle side angle’ respectively. And fear not, there’s a big, blue button labeled “EMERGENCY STOP” in case something goes wrong.

Jeep envisions several use cases for this technology, and it sounds like engineers want to create a system that can also be used on paved roads.

“These features and technology will be field-used on and off the track in a wide variety of driving conditions,” said company director Christian Meunier. We’ll have to be patient to learn more: Jeep promised to release more details about the system in summer 2023. probability that it will eventually reach production.

Jeep is not alone in this niche: Land Rover has been testing autonomous off-road technology for almost a decade, although the system has not yet reached production. On the one hand, it is arguably easier from a regulatory perspective to place self-driving cars off the sidewalk. On the other hand, engineers have to teach the system a new set of site-specific parameters. Human drivers can have a hard time telling which boulder to drive over and which one to drive around, and teaching a car geology is harder than teaching it what a city bus looks like.

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