Jaguar Land Rover Teams Up With Nvidia To Develop Future Car Computer Brains

Land Rover in the future will have Nvidia technology in it. (photo: doc. unsplash)

JAKARTA - Luxury carmaker Jaguar Land Rover and Silicon Valley artificial intelligence company Nvidia said on Wednesday, February 16 that they would collaborate to develop the computer brain and nervous system for the launch of Jaguar and Land Rover in 2025 and beyond.

The two companies did not disclose the financial terms of their multiyear agreement in this partnership. The collaboration is an important win for Nvidia Corp.'s efforts to expand its reach in the auto industry, building its base in gaming, artificial intelligence, and high-powered chips and software used in servers.

For Jaguar Land Rover Automotive Plc, the partnership with Nvidia provides ample allies with resources and funds as they try to catch up with Tesla Inc and other luxury-vehicle competitors in the digital technology arms race.

"We can now accelerate our in-vehicle software," said Francois Dossa, JLR's executive director for strategy, at a press conference.

In collaboration with Nvidia engineers, Jaguar Land Rover plans to develop a self-driving car under certain conditions, park independently and provide drivers with more information and software-enabled features, the company said, such as quoted by Reuters.

The new Jaguar will, in the future, be upgradeable - just like Tesla's current production vehicles. The British automaker said it would use Nvidia technology to drive simulations used to train autonomous vehicles.

Previously, Jaguar Land Rover also had an agreement with Waymo, Alphabet Inc's autonomous vehicle division to implement autonomous driving technology. Dossa said the Waymo collaboration was limited to the Jaguar I-PACE electric SUV. But the alliance with Nvidia includes all Jaguar and Land Rover models that will launch from 2025.

"Nvidia's technology will act as the brain and nervous system of Jaguar Land Rover vehicles starting in 2025," said Nvidia vice president of automotive Danny Shapiro.

Nvidia last month announced deals with several electric vehicle brands from China. The company also has an investment of US$8 billion in the automotive business on order over the next six years. Shapiro said the company would update the figure during investor day scheduled for March 22.

Jaguar Land Rover, a subsidiary of India's Tata Motors Ltd, has been battling rising costs and shortages of semiconductors during this time of the pandemic. Jaguar Land Rover reported a slim pre-tax profit for the quarter ended December 31, 2021. But Tata Motors reported a much larger-than-expected quarterly loss.