“Drive it, Test it, Crash it… Before It’s Even Built”

Jaguar Land Rover has always been one of the most distinguished automotive brands on the planet. By embracing Big Data, they’re now also one of the most technologically advanced.

Jaguar Land Rover (JLR) has dramatically accelerated its design and engineering collaboration and performance by virtue of its amazing new 3D Virtual Simulation & High Performance Computing (HPC) ecosystem. It’s a quantum-leap for JLR in the automotive industry and a distinct competitive advantage. And these transformative IT tools feature prominent roles for scale out NAS and Intel’s x86 HPC architecture.

Jaguar Land Rover Big DataIn the “good old days” of automotive development, lead designers would be lucky to get 1/100 new vehicle prototypes into production. Many great ideas died in the earliest stages, as designs were deemed “impossible” or at least impractical by the engineers. The auto prototype killer has always been cost, as it can cost up to $500 million to design, test and build a new auto product.

IT has transformed all that.

Next-Generation 3D Virtual Simulation, as the visualization end of an HPC ecosystem, now allows JLR’s designers and engineers to collaborate in unprecedented fashion for the automotive industry, designing, testing, and even crashing multiple prototype vehicles thousands of times before they have to actually build them. This unique new technology is enabling quantum leaps in the automotive design and engineering process, yielding four key benefits:

  1. Multiple iterations of design prototypes
  2. Dramatically faster time to market
  3. Major cost savings
  4. Huge reductions in environmental impact.

Range Rover EvoqueThis new Big Data-driven virtual simulation has effectively transformed JLR, with the Range Rover Evoque as its proof-of-concept. Already the winner of Motor Trend’s “2012 SUV of the Year” and over 120 other major industry awards, the Range Rover Evoque is also selling extremely well. As a result, JLR is now applying its new-found Big Data capabilities to the development of an unprecedented 40 new models and product updates.

This new use of Big Data to drive innovation in auto design is the focus of the pilot episode of “At The Intersection,” which includes behind-the-scenes interviews with auto-industry luminaries such as Land Rover Lead Designer Gerry McGovern. The new series is hosted by all-time Jeopardy! Champ Ken Jennings and includes a panel discussion among Tom Roloff, COO of EMC Consulting, and David Tuhy, GM of the Intel Storage Group.

For more information on how Big Data and virtual simulation are transforming the automotive industry, check out www.intersectshow.com.

About the Author: Gregory Gotts