NGI team to save Jaguar Land Rover millions thanks to wireless software updates

The Next Generation Infotainment (NGI) team has smashed its target of 50,000 over-the-air software updates during its latest trials.

The project, which has the ability to save Jaguar Land Rover millions each year, was designed to test the integrity of its software over-the-air solution, before rolling it out to retailers. It will allow owners to download software updates for their car remotely rather than needing to have it plugged into a retailer's Pathfinder update tool.

More than 3,000 management cars took part in trials with the 50,000 target reached from a combination of vehicle and automated rig testing. As a result the team achieved its target by the end of January 2019 averaging 300-400 completed updates daily. 

Led by Software Over-the-Air (SOTA) Manager Shahin Hassan and his Team Leaders, the group sent a variety of software updates on a regular basis over five months to check the robustness of the system in a controlled environment.

Shahin said he was keen to lead this project because he was interested to see how it would work from a deployment and operation point of view. He added:

“Although the SOTA mechanism had been developed, it was only in a lab environment and it needed to be tested on real vehicles before being deployed to retailers.

“The challenge to reach 50,000 updates felt like tackling Mount Everest. However, the team came together to strategise a plan that factored in every possible task and activity to execute the plan effectively.”

Before the team could dream of hitting its target set by Vehicle Engineering Director David Nesbitt, they had to find out how many cars would be ready to receive daily over-the-air updates.

In the summer of 2018, more than 3,000 management cars were updated, given new data SIM cards and each user trained on how to update its software over the air.

Andrew Griffiths, Next Generation Infotainment’s Chief Engineer, said: “It is a truly fantastic team achievement that sets a new benchmark in our software product sign off. It is also a key enabler in helping Jaguar Land Rover realise its future development operations and SOTA strategy.”

Getting the SOTA systems up and available for consumers will see owners spend less time at a retailer and free to update their car when they want. With updates capable of being downloaded via wi-fi or mobile data, customers will be able to check for new software through the InControl infotainment system and install whenever it is convenient for them.

From a business perspective rolling out a robust SOTA solution will allow Jaguar Land Rover to cut its infotainment warranty spend significantly from £60m annually, as each wireless update costs £5 compared to a dealer performing it at £250 per install.

The NGI team also took the opportunity to deploy an over-the-air logging Vehicle Data Sharing system. The large connected test fleet’s data analytics of how each driver uses Jaguar Land Rover’s systems was shared with the group to generate insights into future product development, and creating new revenue streams for the business.

Congratulations to everyone involved in the software over-the-air programme!

Gallery