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Bosch SofTec mySPIN and the new Land Rover InControl system – anachronism no longer

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A lot sooner than later we’re going to get a chance to see how Land Rover does when they finally bring their touch interface into 2014.  It’s going to be an exciting change for Land Rover owners who are used to being a cycle or two behind other luxury brands.  What was once overlooked in an eccentric British Land Rover way, has become a real anachronism.

Land Rover announced their integration of the Bosch SoftTech mySPIN system at CES in January 2014.  That announcement and a post by Stevek1173 over on rangerovers.net got me on the trail to see what we could find.

The interface does look advanced and high-res, it seems to not have much lag but I’m sure all the demos are going to be as perfect as possible.  I also can’t seem to find video of an actual app being used from a smartphone.  All of that type of info is just animated.

One thing that shines through in all of their examples is that Land Rover is deeply involved.  As seen in the first image above, that demo takes place in a new Range Rover Sport.  In addition the video where that clip originates is in German but right at the end Land Rover InControl is clearly mentioned.

You can watch it here, sorry it’s not completely in English but oddly the parts in English are people talking about how they use mySPIN, I’m going to say they’re probably paid extras, ha.

Another still from the video, while this one isn’t exactly a Range Rover Sport (gas filler on wrong side), there’s no mistaking those Range Rover headlights and tail lights.

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Another video, this one in English:

Another with practically all of the interior vehicle shots here are taken in a Range Rover Sport.

While we haven’t actually seen the InControl system “InAction”, these videos do give us an idea of what it will look like and how it will work.  This final video has the user interface on show:

Hope you enjoyed this and hoping even more that we’ll see it in a Range Rover in the next six months or so.

Some links to check out:

http://www.bosch-softtec.com/myspin/myspinhome.html

http://www.bosch-softtec.com/myspin.html

2014-02-07T11:18:16-05:00February 7, 2014|
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Jaguar Land Rover’s Dr. Ziebart “Producing cars to get you from A to B in style” Tech Talk Video

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Another shot of what’s coming to the JLR’s ICE system, it’s getting closer!

The video is about 20 minutes, it’s a really interesting watch.

Official PR:

At a media event on the eve of the Delhi Show, Dr Wolfgang Ziebart, Group Engineering Director, Jaguar Land Rover, shared his vision for technology and engineering.

Dr Ziebart explained how key global trends like the growth of the Megacity, an expanding and more affluent world population, as well as trends in connected consumer technologies will bring with it opportunities, as well as challenges for automotive businesses like Jaguar Land Rover.

Dr Ziebart said: "The cars Jaguar Land Rover will develop in the future will reflect a range of challenges and opportunities. We are going to deliver new models that are smarter, more connected and cleaner than ever before.

"With the sensors and computing power we are developing we will enhance the capability of the driver. For the first time we have the technology to realise the vision of achieving zero accidents. I’m confident that we are only a decade or two away from being able to avoid accidents completely.

"However, our customers tell us that any Jaguar Land Rover autonomous car solution in the future still needs to involve the emotions. Whether you are driving a Jaguar or a Land Rover you want an emotional connection and a thrilling drive – with the ability to drive autonomously when required. A smarter car should not be about taking away driving pleasure – it is about enhancing the driver experience. Our engineering team is working on this today."

2014-02-05T18:03:00-05:00February 5, 2014|
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More comments on the new Jaguar Land Rover InControl systems

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Still trying to get some solid visual examples of what we can expect once the new system does roll out, until then some of the research I’ve done has been interesting.

In the official PR, one of the first bullet points was:

  • System transfers the app interface from the phone to the in-car infotainment touchscreen, and is upgradeable as new apps become available

That got me thinking back to May 2011 when Jaguar announced their Connect and View technology which literally displayed the screen from a USB connected Blackberry device on the touchscreen of the Jaguar XJ demonstrator.  The thing that really got me interested back then was the use of VNC to handle the remote video.  It’s a program I used often at the time to do remote control of various computers.  Their choice of Blackberry was very Land Rover – just slightly off the mark, although this was way off.

Here’s Peter Virk talking about it to Engadget at the time:

[  VIDEO REMOVED :(  ]

He’s moved up the ranks of JLR since then and is now Head of Connected Technologies and Apps.  Here’s his Experience listing from LinkedIn:

******

Head of Connected Technologies and Apps.
Jaguar Land Rover

Public Company; 10,001+ employees; Automotive industry

July 2013 – Present (7 months) Warwickshire, UK

• Managing the innovation and delivery of Connected Infotainment and CE Apps programmes
• Defining the Strategic Direction for Medium and Long Term (2020+)
• Creation of Jaguar Land Rover’s App SDK’s
• Leading JLR’s strategy for HTML5 development
• Developing the core skills capability to deliver innovative experiences
• Driving Apps updates into the field based on a fast and flexible roadmap of feature delivery
• Developing links with University bodies and Overseas Tech Centre’s to enable innovation and market specific solutions
• Defining new Revenue and Business Models for App development
• Driving strategic partnership developments within the CE, App and Connectivity domian

Infotainment Technical Specialist – Apps, CE & Connected Infotainment
Jaguar Land Rover

Public Company; 10,001+ employees; Automotive industry

March 2012 – Present (1 year 11 months) Warwickshire, UK

Infotainment Technical Specialist – Group Leader
Responsible for Jaguar Land Rover’s current and future strategies on:
• Smartphone Infotainment Apps
• Embedded Connected Infotainment Apps
• Innovation and Technology Insight Specialties
• Recruited and created a new department ‘Connected Technologies’ within JLR for brought in mobile Apps and embedded Apps (HTML5) – driving a 5 year feature plan
• Transformation from the traditional feature driven approach to intelligent customer enabling experiences
• Management and recruitment of technical diverse teams
• Technical interface between JLR’s Infotainment and Connected Car organisation
• Lead JLR’s first SDK, mobile App development
Speaker at international conferences
• Connected In-Vehicle Infotainment Global Summit – Sept 2012 – Vehicle-Centric Apps
• IPQC conference – April 2011 – OEM Case Study: An OEM approach to smartphone connectivity
• Blackberry World – May 2011 – Press event, launch of JLR’s Connect and View technology

******

Lots of little bits there and lucky for us there are plenty of other JLR Infotainment people on LinkedIn as well – with more peaks of what’s to come.  One acronym that’s popping up all over is NGI or Next Generation of Infotainment.  I’m assuming that’s what we’re seeing with these latest InControl system or is it?

And a few more bullet points from another LinkedIn profile:

• HTML5 Application Developer for Connected Infotainment Project for Jaguar Land Rover at JLR Product Creation Centre in Gaydon, Warwickshire
• Designing HTML5 Infotainment and mobile applications with CSS3 and Javascript
• Responsive design and cross-platform application development
• HTML5 Animation
• Prototyping and deployment of HTML5 based applications

It’s an interesting way JLR is going for user interfaces.  Can’t wait to see how it turns out.

Sorry if this post was all over the place, I just wanted to get a bunch of info posted for future reference.

2023-06-08T14:46:26-04:00January 10, 2014|
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Jaguar Land Rover’s Long Awaited InControl Apps Platform announced but still remains vaporware.

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The announcements are great but that’s all they are right now.  No pictures, video, examples, just a bunch of text about what’s coming.  I can’t wait to see it, I’m sure it will be great but show us more! 

Here’s a PDF detailing some of the design ideas & inspiration from September 2013

And here’s the announcement from today – no pictures, no real examples just a lot of text about new features coming this year:

Jaguar Land Rover Announces The First Wave Of Apps For Its New InControl™ Apps Platform

  • Jaguar InControl™ Apps and Land Rover InControl™ Apps deliver integrated in-vehicle app connectivity for both Android and Apple smartphones
  • System transfers the app interface from the phone to the in-car infotainment touchscreen, and is upgradeable as new apps become available
  • InControl™ Apps available in new Jaguar and Land Rover models progressively from 2014

Jaguar Land Rover has announced the first wave of third party apps for its innovative new smartphone integration platform -  InControl™ Apps – which has been developed in conjunction with BOSCH SoftTec.

Jaguar Land Rover has worked closely with leading third party app developers to enable an initial suite of Android and iOS compatible applications that will greatly enhance the in-vehicle user experience for customers.

The platform will allow access to apps including: iHeart Radio; Inrix; Stitcher; Glympse; Sygic; Parkopedia; Hotelseeker; Cityseeker; Airmotion News; Winston and Mobile Day.

(more…)

2014-04-27T00:27:03-04:00January 8, 2014|
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