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Budd Stanley & Land Rover photos
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Budd Stanley & Land Rover photos
The Future of Off-Road
This may look like a spectator, but he’s up to much more than just watching.
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Budd Stanley & Land Rover photos
The Future of Off-Road
Land Rover has a technology that turns their vehicles into RC cars.
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Budd Stanley & Land Rover photos
The Future of Off-Road
Is this the future of off-roading? A Land Rover engineer drives a Range Rover Sport through an off-road course with nothing more than a smartphone.
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Budd Stanley & Land Rover photos
The Future of Off-Road
Not all technologies are bad for drivers.
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Budd Stanley & Land Rover photos
Story & photos by Budd Stanley, additional photos by Land Rover
When I joined the ranks of this illustrious profession over a decade ago, I was filled with anticipation. Not only was I getting paid to drive and write about cars and trucks, but the automotive industry as a whole was just about to slip into a new dimension of new technologies and endless possibilities. Hybrids were being perfected, EV’s were coming online and the cockpit was being increasingly modernized with cool and wonderful new technologies, displays and capabilities. It was a very interesting time.
Now as a veteran of automotive journalism, the current morphing of the automotive industry is no less impressive to witness, however I take a much more pessimistic look at the way some trends are leading us.
The old adage of “they just don’t make ’em like they used to” was never more accurate than it is today. Much of the new drivetrain technology is impressive – lower emission engines with more torque and less fuel consumption. The way the whole industry is being led by a runaway train of technological development, they don’t even make ’em today, like they did yesterday.
Up until now, manufacturers have been constantly improving their products mechanically to give the driver a more powerful, faster, safer, reliable and more comfortable machine with which to conduct the act of driving. The disturbing trend is that manufacturers are not so much focused on providing the driver with the mechanical wherewithal to enjoy their position as king of their own domain, but rather develop the software within the car to the point that the driver is nothing more than an attentive passenger – in a best case scenario.
People often wonder when they will be able to buy a car that drives itself. Chances are if you own anything more expensive than a Toyota Corolla, you’re already considered a fraction of the driving equation.
Last issue I was driving the Jeep Cherokee Trailhawk. It’s quite an impressive vehicle that packs a massive amount of high tech into a very affordable new car, even if that particular version was the top trim level. It was laced with traction control, stability control, lane departure warnings, lane recovery overrides of the steering, radar guided cruise control that allows you to lock on to the car in front and stay at a prescribed speed and distance behind, automatic emergency braking, and I haven’t even begun to delve into the off-road terrain programs that you can set all the systems to. The fact is, while the Cherokee was a marvel of modern technology available at an impressively low price, I found it incredibly mundane to drive.
Why? Well I was bored. I knew in the back of my mind that all the systems were all computing millions of tasks per second to ensure that I am as safe, comfortable and require as little brain power as possible to drive the vehicle over harsh terrain, let alone the highway. With nothing to worry or think about, I fell into a bit of a zombie-like state, complacent in my responsibilities as the operator of a motor vehicle. The car was literally driving itself with my steering inputs being my only connection to any kind of control.
It’s proof positive of my theory that all this tech and safety being built into modern cars is absolutely destroying our driving habits and actually putting us at even greater danger as speeds, consequences, responsibilities and common sense is discarded as soon as the drivers door closes. As much as I hate the idea of a self driving car, at this point in time I wonder if it is actually the best option as driving skill and habits have eroded to the equivalent of 8 year-olds playing driving video games. At least this technology has no place with driving enthusiasts such as ourselves. An automated 4WD, sports car or motorbike is an oxymoron is it not?
Apparently not! Land Rover have just announced that they are perfecting technology that allows them to pilot a Range Rover Sport through an off-road testing ground remotely, driven by someone standing at the side of the course with nothing more than a smart phone. Land Rover proclaims the technology as “driver-focused autonomous technologies to enhance the driving experience.” With that comment, Land Rover took whatever faith I had left in their view of 4WD vehicles as an off-road lifestyle, and not a marketing niche, and flushed it right down the toilet. In other words, when the going gets tough, give up and let the vehicles computers take over to get you out of whatever situation you’ve put yourself in.
The technology – as impressive as it undeniably is – allows the driver to exit the vehicle when they become uneasy about the road ahead. Walking beside the vehicle, the driver… cough cough… uh, the ‘supervisor of vehicular navigation and velocity’, can help their vehicle through the situation via a remote control app on their smart phone. The smartphone app includes control of steering, accelerator and brakes as well as changing between high and low range. This gives the ‘supervisor of vehicular navigation and velocity’ the capability to run around their vehicle and check clearances and make sure that their six-figure luxury 4WD doesn’t bend its 22-in rim or scratch its Kaikoura Stone metallic brown paint job.
Regarding the reasoning, I can only surmise two possible theories why Land Rover saw a need for their vehicles to have such technologies, and I’m not sure which is worse. Whether they realize that their vehicles are far too expensive and ill equipped to handle harsh terrain or that the average modern Land Rover owner is equally ill equipped and has no business being any further off-road than the manicured rock driveways of the local country club.
Land Rover stereotype bashing aside, the issue at hand is that all these control-robbing technologies are seeping into genres of automotive lifestyles that are based around the relationship of man and the mechanical workings of a machine. Trying to find a sports car with a manual gearbox is getting harder and harder, even the iconic Porsche 911 GT3 is only available with an automatic. Racecars are using OEM dual clutch automatic transmissions because their performance over a manual is simply devastating.
In all honesty, not every bit of technology is bad. I’m not going to sit here like a grumpy old man and curse the world because I’m scared of change. I love any vehicle that comes with a heads-up display, and Land Rover’s own Invisible Bonnet technology that uses cameras and multiple heads-up displays to allow the driver to see the wheels and ground through the hood is absolute genius. However, these are technologies the aid the driver with additional information they may not have been privy to before, rather than take control of the vehicle away from them at any sign of danger.
Are we doomed to have to submit to software; will our sporting side of the car culture will slowly be taken over by the computer? Will racing and off-road adventures be pre-plotted and navigated by software and sensors, or at best, will our machines become little more than remote control drones in the name of safety and efficiency? We’ll always have our old classic 4WD’s to fall back on. But in a world of autonomous vehicles, will the one vehicle being controlled by a human become the liability, and therefore outlawed?
There are a lot of questions coming up in the automotive industry, and they are going to be coming up real fast. Automated cars have been driving our streets for years now, and Google are planning to unleash an autonomous car to the public as soon as 2017. Unfortunately, all this does is conjure up more questions. What will our future hold? I don’t know about you, but after having a quick glimpse, I think it looks rather boring.