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Jaguar Land Rover's infotainment system adds voice control
When Jaguar Land Rover's InControl system becomes available throughout the brand's full lineup in 2016 (currently only 2015 Jaguar F-TYPE and Land Rover's have it), it'll be equipped with its latest feature: voice control. The British company has just launched a voice command program called justDrive (developed by Silicon Valley startup CloudCar) that drivers can use for hands-free access of InControl apps (like Spotify, Yelp and Twitter). It can also be used to text or call contacts, or even to send them the user's location on a map using natural language. Despite being designed for vehicles, justDrive is actually a smartphone app -- one simply has to connect that phone to the infotainment system via Bluetooth and USB every time s/he wants to use voice control. After connecting the phone, the dash will show a simple interface with large short-cut buttons (check out CNET's hands-on experience to understand what we're saying) to minimize distraction while driving.
Jaguar Land Rover projects driving data directly on the windshield
I've had my on-track exploits overlaid with race telemetry to be viewed after the session, but Jaguar Land Rover is looking to project that info on the windshield while you make laps or cruise the highways. The Virtual Windscreen concept beams hazard, speed and navigation graphics to the driver's view, adding both racing line and braking guidance alongside ghost cars and virtual cones for more performance-oriented activities. What's more, the automaker also has a gesture control system in the works, aiming to limit the amount of physical button pushing.
'Transparent' Land Rover hood shows the rubber meeting the road (video)
So far, invisibility systems for cars have been pretty lame or not terrible useful. Land Rover seems to have finally nailed it with the "transparent bonnet" (hood) on its Discover Vision concept car. It works via a heads up display, which projects a see-through view of the road from cameras located in the grill (see the video after the break). That permits a driver navigating in tight quarters to view sharp rocks or other obstacles, and even see the wheels turning below the car. The tech will be on display next week at the New York International Motor Show, and is part of the company's (apparently see-through) vision for future models.
Land Rover taps Eden Project to test all-electric Defender's mettle
Land Rover has been tinkering with all-electric 4x4s for awhile, but now the automaker is finally ready to put its petrol-free prototypes to the test: its Defender EV is going to work. An upgraded version of its all-terrain monster has been tasked with hauling tourist trains around the UK's biome wonderland, Eden Project. Of course, the beast of burden has undergone some changes since the test stages, losing its hard top and gaining an extra battery to even out weight distribution while extending its service range. The 50-mile range / 8-hour usage cycle is still low by consumer standards, but in this specialized setting the £2, 10-hour recharge is almost negligible.
Land Rover EV prototypes tread lightly uphill, recharge on the way down
Instant torque feels delicious on the highway, but it could be an even bigger asset in an offroader. Land Rover has been experimenting with electric versions of its Defender 110 for a while now, and claims its latest prototypes benefit from a reduction in wheel spin due to the single-speed motor, making them more adept at climbing and less likely to churn up the environment. The prototypes don't necessarily stand out in terms of raw specs: they're 25 percent heavier than turbodiesel models, with lower horsepower and torque ratings, and with a range of just 50 miles. They try to make up for it in other ways, however, with the ability to deliver up to eight hours of slow, grueling off-road time, where range is secondary to staying upright, and by exploiting Land Rover's Hill Descent Control feature for faster recharging through regenerative braking. There's no plan to bring an EV Defender to market any time soon, or to run the Dakar gauntlet like some rivals have, but the prototypes are due to make appearance at the Geneva Motor Show before being tested for painful-sounding "specialist applications" later in the year.
Linux Foundation forms Automotive Grade Workgroup, aims to open-source your ride with Tizen
It doesn't take much driving to notice that many in-car infotainment systems are custom-built and locked down tight. The Linux Foundation sees it differently and wants our cars to embrace the same notions of common roots and open code that we'd find in an Ubuntu box. Its newly-formed Automotive Grade Linux Workgroup is transforming Tizen into a reference platform that car designers can use for the center stack, or even the instrument cluster. The promise is to both optimize a Linux variant for cars and provide the same kind of years-long support that we'd expect for the drivetrain. Technology heavy-hitters like Intel, Harman, NVIDIA, Samsung and TI form the core of the group, although there are already automakers who've signaled their intentions: Jaguar Land Rover, Nissan and Toyota are all part of the initial membership. We don't know how soon we'll be booting into Tizen on the morning commute, but we'd expect in-car systems to take a step forward -- just as long as we don't have to recompile our car's OS kernel.
Apple teases Eyes Free, Siri car integration
Apple's VP of iOS Software Scott Forstall just demoed Eyes Free, Siri's new vehicle integration. The feature is being framed as a safety booster, letting you tap a steering wheel-mounted button to toggle Siri on your iOS device, rather than reaching around for your iPhone or iPad and taking precious seconds away from the road. This being Apple, there are already plenty of partners lined up -- BMW, GM, Mercedes, Land Rover, Jaguar, Audi, Toyota, Chrysler and Honda are all said to be on board, with Siri support making its way to vehicles within the next 12 months. It's certainly not the first example of smartphone/car integration we've seen, but it could soon end up being one of the most widely utilized, despite the years-long head-start competing technologies have enjoyed. Check out our full coverage of WWDC 2012 at our event hub!
Electric Land Rover makes it way easier to sneak up on cowardly lions
It's likely impossible to go on safari in Africa without having any environmental impact at all -- particularly on the ones where shooting things is involved -- but this is certainly a step in the right direction. Battery manufacturer Axeon has teamed up with Jaguar Land Rover South Africa to offer animal watchers / hunters a greener way to get around, outfitting the Defender 110 High Capacity Pick Up with a battery pack where the diesel engine usually goes. The new power source cuts out the car's emissions and silences the engine, making it easier to sneak up on wildlife. This concept vehicle (not Rover's first attempt to green things up) is debuting at the INDABA trade show this week in South Africa, so now would be the time to alert any antelope in your life.
Land Rover develops Range_e hybrid, will show it off at the Geneva Motor Show
You know electric cars are in the ascendancy when even the fearsome 4x4s start looking to add an extra little spark to their energy production and storage. Land Rover has just announced it'll demo one -- there are multiple working versions -- of its development prototypes at the Geneva Motor Show next month, treating us to an exhibition of what a diesel engine can do when augmented with some electric firepower. The Range_e's design is based on the Range Rover Sport and its 3.0-liter TDV6 core, however the new vehicle is capable of going a full 20 miles purely on its electric charge and touts a whopping 690-mile range altogether. Let's hope Geneva shows enough interest in the Range_e to compel Land Rover to turn it into a commercial reality.
Northrop Grumman's CaMEL 'bot features one .50 caliber gun, loads of class
When the dream factory that is Northrop Grumman needed to up the "wow factor" at its Association of the U.S. Army's Washington conference booth, it did what plenty of CES exhibitors wished they could do: it weaponized. Hence, the deadliest CaMEL yet. The acronym stands for Carry-all Mechanized Equipment Landrover -- think of the BigDog robot, but with treads instead of legs. The motorized platform will hump up to 1,200 pounds of gear at seven miles per hour, and as Spencer Ackerman at Wired points out, over sixty of them have been sold to the Israeli military. But the above pictured CaMEL is the only one floating around with armaments: in this case, a .50-caliber M2 machine gun. The gun is fired remotely, via touchscreen controls, and the platform itself could support any number of weapons including the M249, the MK19 grenade launcher, or 30mm cannon. Which kind of proves a pet theory of ours: if you build it, eventually someone will mount a gun on it.
Land Rover's S1 handset withstands torture tests, almost comes out on top
Of course the first question we have when a handset maker launches a set with an unconditional guarantee is, could we break it if we worked hard enough? Seems the tests Land Rover put its Sonim manufactured S1 through, including baking in a 300 degree Fahrenheit oven, tossing it off a second floor balcony, drowning it in a pint of beer, and even having an elephant stand on it didn't bother the S1 in the least. It did, however, finally meet its match when run over by the wheels of a three-tonne forklift. The Land Rover S1 includes and extra loud ringer to help it get noticed around jack hammers and such, a 2 mega pixel camera, 1,500 hour standby time, and that military meets weekend warrior look we know so many adore. The S1 will apparently be available on Orange from £25 -- though, we're not having any luck finding it -- and from Tesco for £250.[Via Slashdot]
Land Rover S1 -- the phone, not the SUV -- hits the FCC
Sonim promised us Land Rover-branded handsets in 2009, and it looks like they aren't poised to disappoint. The S1 model recently hit the FCC, and to call it "rugged-looking" would be an understatement of epic proportions; we reckon this thing could probably be run over by a whole fleet of Land Rovers, in fact (though we wouldn't recommend trying such a stunt on a piece purchased with your own cash). Considering Sonim's kinda known for the whole rugged thing, that really shouldn't come as any surprise -- what might come as a surprise, though, are the price and launch date since we still don't have those. Stay tuned for that noise, and in the meantime, go hop some rocks in your $80,000 all-wheel drive luxo-yacht, aight?
2010 Range Rover gets 12-inch 'dual view' touchscreen
We've seen dual view prototypes for ages now, but you can bank on said technology (dubbed Parallax Barrier) being front and center on Land Rover's forthcoming flagship vehicle. Announced today at the New York Auto Show, the 2010 Range Rover will arrive with a 12-inch touchscreen infotainment system that puts off different images depending on the viewing angle. In order words, the driver can check out the route to grandma's house while the lucky soul riding shotgun peeks a DVD -- in theory, at least. The navigation system is HDD-based and also includes a USB socket and a dedicated iPod port. Land Rover even spruced up the voice activation system, giving motorists the ability to voice their concerns about climate and volume (and get instant results). Check the full snippet just past the break.[Via Engadget Spanish]
Land Rover taking on harsh mobile terrain next year
Hummer chose Modeabs to help dilute its brand, but Land Rover's looking to inject a little more street cred into its unnecessary foray into the mobile world by hooking up with Sonim, purveyors of the badass XP series. Hoping to "compliment the lifestyle of the outdoor adventurer," Sonim will offer the Land Rover S1 and S2 G4 models by the middle of 2009, with a third model following on later in the year. All told, the unlikely twosome hope to market the phone to carriers and directly to consumers in some 40 countries around the globe. The models feature Bluetooth, water resistance, and can be dropped from a height of 1.6 meters onto concrete -- which, let's be honest, is more abuse than that $70,000 Range Rover of yours is ever going to see, unless you count potholes in Hamptons tarmac.[Via Phone Scoop]
Video: Land Rover LRX's iPhone personalizes your car settings
At the nexus of MacWorld and the Detroit Auto Show is this, the iPhone dock for the Land Rover LRX concept car. Our brethren at Autoblog had a chance to sit down with Mr. Sandy Boyes, the LRX's interior designer, to get a better understanding of the iPhone's role in the vehicle. When docked, the iPhone would upload your music, seat settings, steering wheel settings, and all the information for the car's "transfigurable displays." Better yet, he suggests that the dock (iPhone or otherwise) could be offered as a "premium pack" in near-term cars -- there's no need to wait. Check the video after the break.
iPhone integral part of Land Rover LRX concept
Well, would you take a peek at this? Not even a month after we pored over Volkswagen photos that certainly had a hint of Apple about them, images of the Land Rover LRX are surfacing and giving us the same kind of vibe. In a press release issued by the automaker, it notes that the concept vehicle will boast a couple of touchscreens, one of which is used to "control the LRX's iPhone facility." Additionally, you can catch an iPod docking station and a set of removable speakers on the tailgate, though we can't say that's the most convenient location we've ever heard of for such a device. Nevertheless, we should find out a whole lot more when it hits the Detroit Auto Show floor next month, and oh yeah, we hear Jobs has a wee gig of his own to handle around the same time.[Thanks, ssco]Read - Land Rover LRX press releaseRead - Land Rover LRX images
Land Rover nav system used to guide C-130 cargo plane
In a publicity stunt whose failure would surely overshadow the on-camera mishap experienced by Mercedes while demoing their Brake Assist Plus last year, the Land Rover marketing team loaded a 2006 LR3 onto a C-130 cargo plane and had the pilots fly from France to Corsica using only the SUV's navigation system. Luckily for Team Land Rover, the flight originating in Nice went off without a hitch, and the resulting three-minute documentary will be available online to showcase the nav system's ability to to guide drivers (or pilots) even off-road. Meanwhile, earthbound drivers in the UK, birthplace of Land Rover, are still unable to use their own GPS receivers to avoid driving over cliffs and into rivers.
