JLR contactless tech could boost road safety

JAGUAR Land Rover has teamed up with the University of Cambridge to produce an all-new, contactless touchscreen infotainment system, which the firm claims can keep drivers focused on the road and limit the spread of bacteria and viruses.

The technology uses an array of driver monitoring technologies – including a vision-based gesture tracker, an eye-gaze tracer and radio frequency-based sensors.

Drivers can select functions by hovering their finger roughly over a widget on the touchscreen and the car’s artificial intelligence system will figure out the user’s intent, even over bumpy roads.

Lab tests and on-road trials have shown that JLR’s predictive touch technology could reduce the amount of time a driver spends physically interacting with the infotainment screen by as much as 50 per cent, in theory increasing the amount of time spent looking at the road and decreasing the risk of an accident.

Jaguar Land Rover also says its new contactless infotainment system could offer sanitation benefits, by removing the physical connection between the driver and screen and reducing the spread of germs and bacteria.

Professor Simon Godsill, from Cambridge University’s Department of Engineering, worked with JLR on the project. He said: “Touchscreens and other interactive displays are something most people use multiple times per day. Certain pathogens can be transmitted via surfaces, so this technology could help reduce the risk for that type of transmission.”

“The amount of time a driver spends physically interacting with the JLR screen could be cut in half“