Jaguar Land Rover is continuing to build upon its Reimagine strategy announced a year ago under the leadership of CEO Thierry Bolloré. IN its latest move, the British luxury-vehicle maker has formed a multi-year strategic partnership with Nvidia to jointly develop and deliver next-generation automated driving systems plus AI (artificial intelligence)-enabled services and experiences for its customers.

Starting in 2025, all new Jaguar and Land Rover vehicles will be built on the Nvidia Drive software-defined platform—delivering a range of driver assistance systems, active safety, automated driving, and parking systems. Inside the vehicle, the system will deliver AI features including driver and occupant monitoring as well as advanced visualization of the vehicle’s environment.

“Collaboration and knowledge-sharing with industry leader Nvidia are essential to realizing our Reimagine strategy, setting new benchmarks in quality, technology, and sustainability,” said Bolloré. “Our long-term strategic partnership with Nvidia will unlock a world of potential for our future vehicles as the business continues its transformation into a truly global, digital powerhouse.”

New JLR vehicles will be built on a unified computer architecture that delivers software-defined services for ongoing customer value and innovative new business models. The combination of centralized compute and intelligent features upgraded over the air also enhances supply-chain management.

“Next-generation cars will transform automotive into one of the largest and most advanced technology industries,” said Jensen Huang, Nvidia founder and Chief Executive Officer. “Fleets of software-defined, programmable cars will offer new functionalities and services for the life of the vehicles.”

This full-stack solution is based on Nvidia Drive Hyperion 8 platform, which features Drive Orin centralized AV computers; Drive AV and Drive IX software; safety, security, and networking systems; and surround sensors. Drive Orin is the AI brain of the car and runs the Jaguar Land Rover Operating System, while Drive Hyperion is the central nervous system.

Jaguar Land Rover will also leverage in-house developed data center solutions with Nvidia DGX for training AI models and Drive Sim software built on Nvidia Omniverse for real-time physically accurate simulation. The automaker intends for software-defined features and its end-to-end verification and validation architecture to enable the delivery of innovative assisted and automated driving services throughout the life of the vehicle via over-the-air software updates.

For autonomous driving technology, for example, this includes data center hardware, software, and workflows needed to develop systems from raw data collection through validation. Nvidia DGX supercomputers provide the building blocks required for DNN development and training, while Drive Sim enables the necessary validation, replay, and testing in simulation to enable a safe autonomous driving experience. With Nvidia Omniverse, engineers can collaborate virtually as well as exhaustively test and validate these DNNs with high fidelity synthetic data generation.

“This is a centralized AV architecture that’s based on our Drive Orin SOC,” said Danny Shapiro, Vice President, Automotive at Nvidia, of the full-stack solution based on Drive Hyperion. “It delivers 254 TOPS (trillions of operations per second), so it’s an amazingly powerful performance-oriented SOC or system on a chip that’s designed for automated driving.”

According to Shapiro, traditional vehicle electrical architectures are not designed to support a software-first approach. Most vehicles still rely on dozens of ECUs (electronic control units) throughout the car specialized with a specific task.

“Rather than hard-coding dedicated functions into ECUs, a modern vehicle architecture requires high performance, centralized computing, and a complex software stack now leveraging artificial intelligence with a unified architecture,” said Shapiro.

This enables vehicle makers and suppliers to integrate and update advanced software features throughout the life of the car. So just like a mobile phone, software-defined vehicles will be perpetually updateable machines, getting better over time, and enabling new ongoing revenue streams for the industry.

“The central vehicle architecture is also driving the biggest business model transformation the auto industry has ever seen, allowing new features and capabilities to be rolled out well after the cars have been first sold,” said Shapiro. “By implementing a new vehicle architecture and a new computing architecture that’s centralized, one that’s upgradeable and built around high-performance processors in the vehicle, automakers now develop a loyal installed base.”

JLR is looking to Nvidia and other partnerships to enable it to leapfrog its primary luxury competitors in automotive technology.

“At Jaguar Land Rover, we reimagine modern luxury and how our customers experience vehicles, how they connect and interact on every journey,” said François Dossa, Executive Director of Strategy, Jaguar Land Rover. “Collaborating and sharing knowledge with industry leaders in connected services, data, and software development is a cornerstone of our reimagined strategy. Together with Nvidia, we can now accelerate our in-vehicle software, uniquely delivering modern luxury experiences.”

Dossa confirmed that JLR has a growing group of 1800 software engineers working on the new intelligent architecture, in addition to the transition to zero emissions powertrains, which are part of the larger JLR Reimagine strategy.

That strategy is meant to be a sustainability-rich reimagination of modern luxury, unique customer experiences, and positive societal impact—on the road of JLR’s Reimagine journey to become a net-zero carbon business by 2039.

All Jaguar and Land Rover nameplates to be available in pure electric form by end of the decade, with the first all-electric Land Rover model in 2024. In the next five years, Land Rover will introduce six pure electric variants as it continues its mission to be the world leader in luxury SUVs. In a recent demonstration of its electrification strategy, Land Rover’s new Range Rover flagship gets an extended-range plug-in hybrid with up to 70 mi (113 km) of all-electric range. It sees Jaguar as an all-electric luxury brand from 2025 to “realize its unique potential.”

Other elements of the strategy include developing clean-hydrogen fuel-cell power in preparation for future demand. Its global manufacturing and assembly footprint will be “retained, rightsized, repurposed, and reorganized.”

The JLR corporate structure will be streamlined to deliver greater agility and promote an “efficiency of focus.” Part of that involves collaborations and knowledge-sharing with industry leaders, in particular from within the wider Tata Group, that will allow the company to explore potential synergies on clean energy, connected services, data, and software development leadership like the Nvidia partnership.

All of this is to put the group on a path toward double-digit EBIT (earnings before interest and taxes) margin and positive cash flow, with an ambition to achieve positive cash net-of-debt by 2025, with a value creation approach delivering quality and profit over volume.