News: Jaguar Land Rover Partners with Nvidia to Create Software-Defined Cars

Move to Electrification Paired with Reengineering Around New Software

The middle of the decade is game changer time for Tata’s Jaguar Land Rover group as the company plans to launch a new generation of electrified vehicles that will rely a new Nvidia-based operating system. That new unified computer architecture will be the basis for advanced safety features, including a new level of self-driving, connected car services and other features. All new models in both brands starting in 2025 will contain this new system.

Nvidia vice president, automotive, Danny Shapiro characterized the new generation of vehicles from JLR as “perpetually updated machines.” For his part, JLR’s executive director of strategy and sustainability Francois Dossa said the JLR-Nvidia partnership was a “long-term strategic partnership.” At several points in the media briefing he pointedly said Nvidia was “not a supplier, but a co-developer of products,” indicating the depth of the relationships anticipated between the two companies. 

By delivering over-the-air (OTA) updates to the car’s software system and thus giving customers new technology and features, JLR could potentially stretch out model cycles the same way Tesla has.

“Our long-term strategic partnership with Nvidia will unlock a world of potential for our future vehicles as the business continues its transformation into a truly global, digital powerhouse,” Thierry Bolloré, CEO of Jaguar Land Rover, said.

Counting the Value

Dossa enumerated the advantages of the new Nvidia system. He said it offered five competitive advantages to the luxury carmaker.

1. The partnership with Nvidia promises to deliver “things we haven’t even thought of yet” in Shapiro’s words. More than a simply a technology upgrade, it offers a platform for new features to be added to existing vehicles in the future.
2. It provides a digitization of the company’s vehicles, putting them on a global digital platform.
3. It promises to provide an enhanced luxury experience for customers.
4. It will transform JLR into the leadership in connected car technology.
5. It will enhance profitability by enabling new revenue streams from in-car applications or from fees for upgrades.

He added that he expects Jaguar Land Rover vehicles to achieve Level 2+ self-driving capability (where driver intervention is required) and then move up to Level 3, where a vehicle can run autonomously under certain conditions, though a driver is still required. Jaguar also will continue its relationship with Alphabet’s Waymo in autonomous vehicle development.

 Nvidia founder and CEO Jensen Huang concurred. “Next-generation cars will transform automotive into one of the largest and most advanced technology industries,” he said. “Fleets of software-defined, programmable cars will offer new functionalities and services for the life of the vehicles.”

Nvidia Inside

Although Nvidia’s products are built on an open software platform, JLR and Nvidia engineers are already working on customization that will be at the public face of the program. Much like vehicle development, software features will be tested and validated before they are installed on consumer vehicles using Nvidia’s data center solutions.

The basic computer—the brain of the system—is the Drive Orin computer-system-on-a-chip that was introduced last year. It is capable of 254 TROPS (trillion operations per second) to support the Drive Hyperion 8 platform’s Drive AV software and artificial intelligence features, including driver and occupant monitoring, active safety, automated driving and parking systems and other driver assistance systems.  

The Nvidia partnership is part of JLR’s Reimagine strategy, which has the goal of “redefining modern luxury, infusing intelligence into the customer experience.” Given the computer being built in all of its new cars, Jaguar Land Rover should have a platform to execute on that strategy.