The British automaker has been working on advanced driver-assistance technology that monitors brainwaves or allows an SUV to be remotely operated over rough terrain via a smartphone, however JLR research-and-development head Wolfgang Epple suggests the company will not develop vehicles that completely eliminate the driver’s traditional role.
“We don’t consider customers cargo,” the executive recently told reporters, as quoted by Automotive News. “We don’t want to build a robot that delivers the cargo from A to B.”
Epple argues that drivers will prefer to still be in control of the vehicle, though he acknowledges the benefits to semi-autonomous technology that is currently under development by JLR and rivals.
“People want to use the emotional side of the brain and autonomous driving does not generate that experience,” he added. “Very smart and safe autonomous vehicles will appear. They will have cognitive abilities and they will make decisions. But ultimately it’s you the driver that makes that decision.”
The company expects its remote-control technology and other semi-autonomous features, such as self-parking, to be available on the market by the end of the decade.
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