Jaguar unveils connected F-Pace at CES

Jaguar Land Rover has showcased some of the connected car technology which could appear on its future products with a special version of the F-Pace SUV at the Consumer Electronics Show.

The bespoke F-Pace, which is one of only two examples of the car in the US, features extra infotainment hardware from Intel and a bespoke graphical interface specially developed for CES. The car connects to an Intel gateway inside an owner's house, which allows it to communicate with other connected devices.

Examples of the car's connected functionality include the ability to match the temperature set inside the house, and stream music from the same playlist or track selection. In addition, when another person tries to access the boot of the F-Pace, owners inside the house are alerted and can view the car's rear-facing camera remotely.

The car can also warn drivers if they've left an item inside the house, thanks to small electronic tags, and even pinpoint their position. When the car is started, the F-Pace can ask drivers if they'd like to set their connected home to 'away mode', which turns off other electronic devices inside, such as TVs.

The connected F-Pace is only a technology demonstrator for the moment. JLR's director of future technology Matt Jones said: "We don't yet know what the customer is going to want and when, but by working on these different technologies we can work that out. We've got some fantastic ideas, but at the moment that's all they are.

"Driver's expectations for infotainment systems in the future are not based on traditional cars, they're based on this. The technology almost comes second here, what comes first is the use case. What's the frustrating thing that you can't do in a vehicle at the moment? What would ultimately mean you'd never want to buy another vehicle without that technology again?"

Any future production version of Intel's connected car technologies is likely to be based on Jaguar Land Rover's InControl Touch platform.

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