The new Land Rover Defender family will showcase its dual-eSIM connectivity at CES 2020 in Las Vegas. About to go on sale this year, the New Defender is the first vehicle with two embedded LTE modems for enhanced connectivity, paired with Jaguar Land Rover’s new Pivi Pro touchscreen infotainment system. The intuitive Pivi Pro system allows customers to make full use of the New Defender’s Software-Over-The-Air (SOTA) technology, without compromising its ability to stream music and connect to apps on the move.
With its own designated LTE modem and eSIM, the SOTA technology can operate in the background, without affecting the day-to-day connectivity provided by the separate modem and eSIM in the infotainment module. The always-on and always-connected Pivi Pro set-up sits at the heart of New Defender’s cabin and its 25.4 cm (10) high-resolution touchscreen allows customers to control all aspects of the vehicle using the same processing hardware as the latest smartphones. In addition, customers can connect two mobile devices to the infotainment head unit at once using Bluetooth, so the driver and passenger can enjoy hands-free functionality concurrently without the need to swap connections.
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Pivi Pro has its own battery, so the system is always on and able to respond immediately on start-up. As a result, the navigation is ready to accept new destinations the moment the driver sits in the vehicle, with no delay. Customers can also download updates, so the system is always using the latest software – including navigation mapping data – without the need to visit retailers for updates to be installed. The LTE connectivity behind Jaguar Land Rover’s infotainment also allows New Defender to roam across multiple networks in different regions to optimise connectivity.
Powering the Defender’s Pivi Pro infotainment and Vehicle Domain Controller are two high-performance Qualcomm Snapdragon 820Am Automotive Platforms, each with an integrated Snapdragon X12 LTE modem. With its power-efficient CPU cores, state-of-the-art GPU performance, integrated machine learning and powerful video processing capabilities, the Snapdragon 820Am Automotive Platform is designed to provide connected in-car experiences, including responsive interfaces, 4K graphics, high-definition media streaming, and audio.
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Two X12 LTE modems provide parallel high-bandwidth downlink and uplink connectivity across multiple networks, ultra-fast connectivity and lower latency for secure, reliable communications. Additionally, the X12 LTE modem features an integrated global navigation satellite system (GNSS) and automotive dead reckoning, increasing the vehicle’s capability to accurately keep track of its location and position.
The Defender is the first Land Rover to include a domain controller that consolidates a number of Advanced Driver Assistance Systems (ADAS) and driver convenience functions built on top of the QNX Hypervisor. Consolidating more systems onto fewer ECUs is integral to the future of automotive electrical design and will be the model for Land Rover’s next-generation vehicle architecture. Within New Defender, the Blackberry QNX operating system helps deliver a smartphone-like experience for Pivi Pro infotainment users. The technology also powers the operating system for the latest generation TFT Interactive Driver Display, which can be configured by the driver to show vehicle instrumentation, navigation instructions and mapping information or a combination of the two.
By scanning with smartphone QR codes displayed on Pivi Pro, user accounts are compatible with music streaming services including Spotify, TuneIn and Deezer that are automatically recognised and added to the cloud – transferring the driver’s digital life to their vehicle in a heartbeat. From this point, customers can access and stream content without even having their smartphone in the vehicle. Content provider updates are carried out in the cloud, so they are always up to date – even if the corresponding smartphone app has not been updated.
The CloudCar system supports a variety of service and content functionalities and recognises dial-in numbers and codes, as well as locations, stored within calendar meeting invites. Drivers and passengers can then navigate to or dial-in to meetings and conference calls with a single touch of the central touchscreen, minimising distractions.
In the UK, Defender owners will even be able to pay for parking using the central touchscreen through apps including RingGo, without leaving their vehicle. Customers can also take their digital landscape with them when swapping between Jaguar and Land Rover vehicles, providing instant familiarity in multi-car households within whichever vehicle is being driven.
Alongside the latest Advanced Driver Assistance Systems (ADAS), which include Adaptive Cruise Control and Blind Spot Assist, Bosch has supported the development of Land Rover’s innovative 3D Surround Camera System, which gives drivers a unique view of the vehicle’s immediate perimeter using four wide-angle HD cameras, each providing a 190-degree field-of-view. Connected using a 3 Gbit/s video backbone and fused with 14 ultrasonic sensors, the clever technology gives drivers a choice of vantage points including a top-down plan view and seamless perspective view. It even performs as a virtual scout, allowing drivers to pan around the vehicle on-screen.