AV testing at ‘Future Mobility Campus Ireland’

Jaguar Land Rover is partnering with global software, mobility and telecoms companies to create a smart city hub allowing 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 across 12km of public roads, simulating a variety of road environments and traffic scenarios in trialling new technologies, including using the electric Jaguar I-Pace.

The testbed will advance Jaguar Land Rover’s research into autonomous vehicles (AVs), connected, electrified and shared vehicles – even drones.

The real-world facility will have sensors throughout, 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 EV 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.

“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,” Shannon Ireland Jaguar Land Rover general manager John Cormican says.  

“Collaborating with top-tier software companies will allow us to develop our future systems more efficiently.”

FMCI chief executive Russell Vickers says 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.”

Construction starts in January 2021 and should finish by September 2021.

The mule vehicle (Jaguar I-Pace) build is expected to be completed by April, with the Smart City infrastructure operational by September.