RE: JLR future tech

Thursday 10th July 2014

JLR future tech

Brake points and ghost cars projected on your screen and new four-cyl engines among 10 JLR tech highlights



Deep within the security cordon at Whitley and Gaydon, Jaguar Land Rover engineers are working on the future. Buoyed up by an R&D budget of £3.5bn for this financial year alone, an almost skunkworks-like spirit is evident, as showcased in a rare behind-closed-doors visit to the inner Gaydon sanctum. Here are 10 tech headlines JLR is working on...

Ingenium engine virtually tested in 'cave' room
Ingenium engine virtually tested in 'cave' room
Ingenium engines
The new four-cylinder turbo Ingenium engine family is the biggie. Production of the diesel will start in Wolverhampton's new £500m factory in January 2015, ready for installation in the BMW 3 Series-fighting XE (petrols will follow). 3 Series-beating in terms of CO2, promises Jaguar. Sub-100g/km is the target, with over 74mpg compared to the current BMW-best of 65mpg. How's the homologation going, we asked? "We're almost there..."

It's not just a class-best green engine. Jaguar wants the family to beat all others for refinement, power and torque too. That's why each Ingenium, be it petrol or diesel, will get a turbocharger, direct injection and variable valve timing. The more powerful ones will get sequential turbos; Jaguar's ruled out supercharged/turbocharged units, promising its twin-turbo units match them for transient response. And supply enough power to beat the current class-best four-pot diesel, BMW's 218hp, 332lb ft 325d. Indeed, Jaguar hints the hot Ingenium diesel even beats its 240hp 3.0-litre V6 diesel: 250hp diesel headline for the new Jaguar XE?

Four-cylinder engines at core of new Jag range
Four-cylinder engines at core of new Jag range
And that's with 80kg less weight than the V6, something Jaguar's ride and handling engineers are delighted about. The use of roller bearings on cam and balancer shafts, offset crankshafts and already two million miles of on-road testing means so should customers - the engineers are confident this is a 'real' Jaguar engine, more than a match for the 25 rival motors it's bought, stripped and benchmarked.

Jaguar Virtual Windscreen
The computer game becomes virtual reality: Jaguar is working on a 3D projection windscreen, for which one use could be transforming track days. Racing lines can be projected onto the windscreen (changing colour to depict braking points). Videogame-style ghost cars show where the quickest guys are gaining time (and exactly how they're doing so). An empty airfield can even be turned into a circuit via virtual cones. It's stunning, world-grade 'wow' technology; we just need the 3D projection technology to catch up.

Self-learning car, Siri-style
Like 5Live on the drive into work, but 6Music on the way back? Like hot seats on cold days? Always select Sport mode on a certain stretch of B-road? Future JLR cars will learn all this and second-guess you - the self-learning car is in the lab. Make its brain bigger by linking to your smartphone: clever cars will read your diary, set the sat nav and alert people in meetings if you're running late. The more you drive, the more it learns; there will be an opt-out for when you're off to see the mistress.

Self-learning and gesture control for 'smart' cars
Self-learning and gesture control for 'smart' cars
More hybrids mean more Range Rovers
Hybrid will save the Range Rover. "There's no route to[as little as] double-digit CO2 except for hybrid," said Dr Wolfgang Ziebart, JLR director of Group Engineering. Specifically, plug-in hybrid. IC engines will get smaller and the electric-drive capability will grow. Fuel consumption and emissions will thus fall near to pure EV levels, certainly in the official cycle (but still with 'secret capability' away from this). For Range Rover, it means "the opportunity to enjoy it for quite a while". Phew.

Gesture control
Pressing buttons? Pah. JLR wants you to wave and swipe key controls in the future car. A wave back will open the sunroof. Scrolling a finger in the air will control the sat nav display. Swipe your hand towards you to accept a call (or bat it away to reject). JLR wants to reduce in-car button count but functionality is demanding ever more of them: this is one way to manage the button-fest.

Frickin' lasers to help spacial awareness
Frickin' lasers to help spacial awareness
Laser width guidance
Those people in town who can't judge how wide their cars are - annoying, aren't they? JLR's got the tech for them - lasers, that shine markers onto the road showing how wide the car is - proving they can get through that gap without hitting the parked Nissan Micra.

Laser lights to equal no lights?
Taking lasers a step further, JLR is looking into laser lights - genuine laser beams, said the researcher, rather than current diffracted laser technology. They would use optical fibres as well, eliminating much of the bulky, heavy stuff that goes into today's headlights. A car with no lights? The design department, he said, are already showing much interest...

JLR App Store: InControl
JLR's signed up for Apple CarPlay and Android Auto, but has also launched its own apps, using its InControl 'app store'. Third party apps do clever things: you can dial into conference calls on the move, with the app auto-entering any access codes, for example, or find nearby parking space availability, including prices, in real time. More headline-grabbing stuff is on the way - possibly including Facebook and Twitter, if they can work out how to make it both safe to use on the move but also actually worth having...

Maintenance tasks made easier, virtually
Maintenance tasks made easier, virtually
3D dials bring beauty back
Hate electronic dials? You'll love JLR's 3D dials, giving flat electronic displays depth and making even a fuel gauge into a work of art. Simple to do, apparently: the beautiful instrument pack could be back.

3D service and maintenance testing
No more hard-to-reach bolts or impossible-to-remove oil filters; every piece of JLR tech goes through the 3D 'virtual cave' where a team of 50 service engineers assess how easy it is to work on in practice. They're all car guys: "Everyone here loves working on cars," says the cave boss. That 2050 Jaguar XE resto will be a doddle.

 

 

Author
Discussion

Gorbyrev

Original Poster:

1,160 posts

153 months

Thursday 10th July 2014
quotequote all
Sounds like a fun day out. Some cracking tech there. That diesel 4 pot sounds impressive. JLR on a roll just now.

gck303

203 posts

233 months

Thursday 10th July 2014
quotequote all
"No more hard-to-reach bolts or impossible-to-remove oil filters; "

I believe that when I see it.

If that really were a concern of auto makers, then cars were you need to remove the front bumper to replace a headlight bulb (Renault Modus) would not exist. It does not need a 3D cave to see that, a simple glance at an early drawing would have been enough?


Edited by gck303 on Thursday 10th July 10:23

4a4

213 posts

134 months

Thursday 10th July 2014
quotequote all
Wow! JLR are smashing it at the minute smile

Most models are stunning, and a huge R&D budget to produce exciting new things.

Dave Hedgehog

14,541 posts

203 months

Thursday 10th July 2014
quotequote all
is it april first already?

seriously F5 heads up display???

DaveL485

2,758 posts

196 months

Thursday 10th July 2014
quotequote all
gck303 said:
"No more hard-to-reach bolts or impossible-to-remove oil filters; "

I believe that when I see it.
Indeed! (Or, if they do manage it, tell them to give Renault some tips lol!!)

williamp

19,213 posts

272 months

Thursday 10th July 2014
quotequote all
Great news, although their engines need to better BMW's next generation engines, not the current ones.

Still hugely impressive stuff and now they make very desirable cars. Its hard tob
Believe the x type was just 10 years ago.

DMC2

1,827 posts

210 months

Thursday 10th July 2014
quotequote all
Wow, that all sounds amazing. But can you please just work out how to make your cars lighter.

anonymous-user

53 months

Thursday 10th July 2014
quotequote all
gck303 said:
"No more hard-to-reach bolts or impossible-to-remove oil filters; "

I believe that when I see it.

If that really were a concern of auto makers, then cars were you need to remove the front bumper to replace a headlight bulb (Renault Modus) would not exist. It does not need a 3D cave to see that, a simple glance at an early drawing would have been enough?


Edited by gck303 on Thursday 10th July 10:23
That's like saying all razor manufacturers don't care about the ease of changing blades based on your experience with a disposable BiC. Don't tar them all with the same brush. Renault make nasty cheap cars and might not care about serviceability but I've never had the slightest problem with access to regular service items on any JLR car.

dukebox9reg

1,570 posts

147 months

Thursday 10th July 2014
quotequote all
williamp said:
Great news, although their engines need to better BMW's next generation engines, not the current ones.

Still hugely impressive stuff and now they make very desirable cars. Its hard tob
Believe the x type was just 10 years ago.
BMW have only just really recently launched their new 2ltr diesel. Used in the 125d and now fitting to the new X5 and X3 etc. So still in the ball park. Going on those figures it blows BMWs 2.0 4 pot out of the water and some of the 6's.

Looks like it beats VW's new engine that's been announced aswell for the new new Passat. 238bhp 2.0 twin turbo.

RacerMike

4,192 posts

210 months

Thursday 10th July 2014
quotequote all
gck303 said:
If that really were a concern of auto makers, then cars were you need to remove the front bumper to replace a headlight bulb (Renault Modus) would not exist. It does not need a 3D cave to see that, a simple glance at an early drawing would have been enough?
When I left Uni and worked as a CAD Jockey/Design engineer at a major motorcycle manufacturer, this was one of the biggest things we spent our time on. You'd think it was easy to see when something didn't fit on a drawing, but there's so many conflicting drivers for how a part is designed, that stuff like services access can be a real headache to get right. It takes quite a lot of effort to balance all of these factors, and there's a long standing joke around the phrase 'well it works on CAD'. Unfortunately, physical manufactured components just often don't work as simply as they do on the drawing board/CAD Machine.

toppstuff

13,698 posts

246 months

Thursday 10th July 2014
quotequote all
Amazing. Good for JLR.

A friend of mine has both a Mk2 Land Rover Lightweight and a Jaguar XK120. It is remarkable how much has changed in such a short period time.

kambites

67,461 posts

220 months

Thursday 10th July 2014
quotequote all
Article said:
Racing lines can be projected onto the windscreen (changing colour to depict braking points).
Of course that wont end in any sort of law-suit when there turns out to be less grip than expected. hehe

anonymous-user

53 months

Thursday 10th July 2014
quotequote all
Good God. That pretty much sounds like my worst nightmare of a car!


"things that show you where to brake on a trackday"

- er, i'll just work that out for myself, as that is kinda the point of track days, otherwise i'd just save a lot of hassle and drive my playstation instead (which costs much less when you throw it into the armco!)


"fully adaptive car"

- again, no thanks. I'm a fully adaptive driver so the system cannot ever be as clever as me, so will almost certainly become the most annoying feature of the car, always doing stuff you don't expect at times that it isn't needed.


"New engines"

- ok finally this is what JLR need (they needed it 5 years ago at the XF launch actually). But, deliberately and publically targetting BMW and it's engine is a dangerous game. As a historical "10% short" company if you're gonna play by BMWs rules you need to up your game significantly! (Which to be fair to JLR they have done over the last couple of years) but BMW have at least a 3 year lead on them in development terms in diesels..........


"Gesture control"

- how will tell that actually you were just giving a cyclist the "universal coffee beans" sign, and you didn't want to eject your passenger through the sun roof? Cars work well with conventional buttons. End of


"lasers help people through gaps"

- no, no they don't. Rubbish drivers will still be rubbish. They will just be rubbish with a couple of lasers shining out the side of their car now. You will "still be able to get a bus through there mate" no matter how many lasers you fit to their cars!


"Laser lights"
- bit late to the band wagon with this one, but using actual LASERS, (Light Amplification by Stimulated Emission of Radiation) which by there very nature produce beams of highly collimated light, sounds like a not very sensible answer for broad scale distributed illumination. And companies like Hela et-al, are so far down the road with this one it's hardly worth starting now


"3d dials"
- when it turns out your new fangled electronic display dash boards look, frankly rubbish, you "fix" them with more new fangled tech... Hmmm.


Unfortunately for me, if manufacturers stopped spending money on pointless Electronic Feature Content we would all be driving round in much better cars........... (god, now i'm starting to sound like an old git ;-)


Edited by anonymous-user on Thursday 10th July 11:34

toppstuff

13,698 posts

246 months

Thursday 10th July 2014
quotequote all
It should be noted, in the interests of balance, that LR products are not the most reliable on the planet.

Our family has a few farmer-types in it and they have numerous, multiple examples of Discovery 3 and 4 's suffering from electrical glitches and breakdowns.

All this new tech is really spiffing I am sure, but please JLR, make it reliable. smile

bodhi

10,333 posts

228 months

Thursday 10th July 2014
quotequote all
Must admit I was looking forward to reading this, then saw the thing they were proudest of was a 4 cylinder diesel engine. Lost interest after that. For all it's great numbers it will still sound like a cement mixer, and with the numbers they are quoting I expect it will grenade itself the second the warranty runs out.

zeppelin101

724 posts

191 months

Thursday 10th July 2014
quotequote all
bodhi said:
Must admit I was looking forward to reading this, then saw the thing they were proudest of was a 4 cylinder diesel engine. Lost interest after that. For all it's great numbers it will still sound like a cement mixer, and with the numbers they are quoting I expect it will grenade itself the second the warranty runs out.
A competitive 4 cylinder diesel might not be exciting for a typical petrol head, but it's the key to the market share that Jaguar desperately needs to remain a viable brand.

Unless you'd rather see yet another British brand disappear into oblivion.

dukebox9reg

1,570 posts

147 months

Thursday 10th July 2014
quotequote all
toppstuff said:
It should be noted, in the interests of balance, that LR products are not the most reliable on the planet.

Our family has a few farmer-types in it and they have numerous, multiple examples of Discovery 3 and 4 's suffering from electrical glitches and breakdowns.

All this new tech is really spiffing I am sure, but please JLR, make it reliable. smile
Look at JD power. JLR are going forward (along with some of the French) and the Germans are starting to go backwards.

gdaybruce

753 posts

224 months

Thursday 10th July 2014
quotequote all
dme123 said:
I've never had the slightest problem with access to regular service items on any JLR car.
Three words: "Freelander 2 oil filter"! (Although to be fair, once you've bought the specific ratchet spanner with a flexible head, it is doable.)

jimbobsimmonds

1,824 posts

164 months

Thursday 10th July 2014
quotequote all
Dave Hedgehog said:
is it april first already?

seriously F5 heads up display???
We build Helmet Mounted Displays for aircraft and have developed one for ground troops and have been doing so for nearly a decade now. It's only a matter of time before this trickles down into the automotive industry and is seen inside your windscreen!

RacerMike

4,192 posts

210 months

Thursday 10th July 2014
quotequote all
Max_Torque said:
Stuff and bits
Absolutely get your sentiment, and personally, I like my cars analogue and slightly fighty, however, you're effectively saying that we (as engineers) should just settle for what we've got because it's 'good enough' and forget about trying to do any of this new fangled rubbish.

Surely without a few crazy ideas like turbo chargers on passenger cars (I understand many companies dismissed the idea as only for commercial vehicles and useless in a passenger car) or aids for iditotic drivers like ABS (the use of which has clearly reduced the number of accidents on the roads) we'd all be driving around killing ourselves in 90bhp NA 2.0l petrol tin boxes consuming vast quantities of fuel.

OK, not all of this will make it, or indeed be useful, but stagnation and complacency is what killed the UK car industry in the 70s. The fact anyone, let alone a British company, is prepared to pump so much in to what you view as 'stupid ideas' is clearly a good thing. Even if only one of these things leads to progress in technology, it's money well spent. We should be celebrating and encouraging ideas and innovation otherwise we (as a species) will no longer evolve!

Edited by RacerMike on Thursday 10th July 12:18