Jaguar Land Rover has confirmed its plans to open a new software engineering centre, creating 150 new jobs in the process, in Shannon, Republic of Ireland.
Creating the new facility will take Jaguar Land Rover another step closer towards realising their vision for electric and automated cars. The new centre will be responsible for developing new technologies to support the electrification and self-driving functions on future Jaguar and Land Rover vehicles.
Shannon was selected as the location for the new centre as it is currently globally recognised as a centre of excellence for current and future software engineering talent.
Executive Director of Product Engineering, Nick Rogers, said, "The heart of our business will always be in the UK. The creation of a team in Shannon strengthens our international engineering capabilities and complements our existing team of more than 10,000 engineers based in the UK."
With support from the Irish Development Agency, the Shannon team will begin development of the next generation of electrical architecture and explore advanced driver assistance systems features to be used on future vehicles.
Jaguar Land Rover has also agreed to partner with online education provider Udacity, which specialises in courses for automated driving, artificial intelligence, robotics and data analytics, as part of the development of the new centre. The courses from Udacity will provide the skills required to support Jaguar Land Rover’s engineering capabilities and ongoing technological innovation.
Software engineers with experience in a range of disciplines including artificial intelligence, safety-critical systems and vehicle architecture are sought after by Jaguar Land Rover.
Developing full- and semi-automated driving technologies is a key part of Jaguar Land Rover’s plans for the future. The goal is to make automated driving a viable option in the real world both on and off-road in all weather conditions.
Jaguar Land Rover have also set themselves the goal for all new vehicle lines to be offered with the option of electrification from 2020. These will include electric, plug-in hybrid and mild hybrid vehicles and begins with the first fully electric performance SUV, the Jaguar I-PACE, which goes on sale in 2018.
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