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Jaguar Land Rover partners with Nvidia for vehicle electronics and software

DETROIT — Luxury automaker Jaguar Land Rover and Silicon Valley artificial intelligence company Nvidia said Wednesday they will collaborate to develop the computer brains and nervous systems for Jaguars and Land Rovers launching in 2025 and beyond. The companies did not disclose financial terms of their multiyear agreement. The collaboration is a high-profile win for Nvidia Corp's effort to expand its reach in the auto industry, building on its base in gaming, artificial intelligence and high-powered chips and software used in servers. For Jaguar Land Rover Automotive, the partnership with Nvidia gives it a well-funded ally as it tries to catch up with Tesla and other luxury vehicle rivals in a digital technology arms race. "We can now accelerate our in-vehicle software," Francois Dossa, JLR's executive director for strategy, said during a conference call. Working with Nvidia engineers, Jaguar Land Rover plans to develop vehicles that can drive themselves under certain conditions, park autonomously and provide more information and software-powered features to drivers, the companies said. The new Jaguars will be upgradable — as Tesla vehicles are today. The automaker said it will use Nvidia technology to power simulations used to train autonomous vehicles. Jaguar Land Rover has a previous deal with Alphabet Inc's Waymo unit to deploy autonomous driving technology. Dossa said the Waymo collaboration was limited to the Jaguar I-PACE electric SUV. The Nvidia alliance covers all Jaguar and Land Rover models to be launched from 2025. Nvidia technology will act as the brains and the nervous system of Jaguar Land Rover vehicles starting in 2025, said Nvidia's vice president of automotive, Danny Shapiro. Nvidia last month announced deals with several Chinese electric vehicle brands. The company has said it has $8 billion in automotive business booked over the next six years. Shapiro said the company will update the figure during an investor day scheduled for March 22. Jaguar Land Rover, a subsidiary of India's Tata Motors Ltd has been struggling with rising costs and semiconductor shortages. Jaguar Land Rover reported a narrow pretax profit for the quarter ended Dec. 31, but Tata Motors reported a larger quarterly loss than expected. Related video: This content is hosted by a third party. To view it, please update your privacy preferences. Manage Settings. Jaguar Land Rover Technology Autonomous Vehicles nvidia

Jaguar Land Rover cutting production in face of falling demand

LONDON — Jaguar Land Rover will reduce or stop production on certain days at two of its British factories over the next few weeks as Britain's biggest carmaker pursues cost-cutting measures in response to falling demand. JLR posted a 2.3% drop in retail sales in the three months to the end of December and has targeted billions of pounds worth of savings to tackle falling diesel demand in Europe and a tough sales environment in China. The firm will halt production on selected days over a four-week period from late February at its Castle Bromwich factory in central England and stop production on some half or full days at its nearby Solihull facility until the end of March. "The external environment remains challenging for our industry and the company is taking decisive actions to achieve the necessary operational efficiencies to safeguard long-term success," the company said in a statement. "We have confirmed that Solihull and Castle Bromwich will make some minor changes to their production schedules to reflect fluctuating demand globally, whilst still meeting customer needs." The move is not connected to coronavirus, a spokeswoman said, which prompted Fiat Chrysler to warn on Thursday that a European plant could shut down within two to four weeks if Chinese parts suppliers cannot get back to work. Related Video:

Weekly Recap: Chrysler forges ahead with new name, same mission

Chrysler is history. Sort of. The 89-year-old automaker was absorbed into the Fiat Chrysler Automobiles conglomerate that officially launched this fall, and now the local operations will no longer use the Chrysler Group name. Instead, it's FCA US LLC. Catchy, eh? Here's what it means: The sign outside Chrysler's Auburn Hills, MI, headquarters says FCA (which it already did) and obviously, all official documents use the new name, rather than Chrysler. That's about it. The executives, brands and location of the headquarters aren't changing. You'll still be able to buy a Chrysler 200. It's just made by FCA US LLC. This reinforces that FCA is one company going forward – the seventh largest automaker in the world – not a Fiat-Chrysler dual kingdom. While the move is symbolic, it is a conflicting moment for Detroiters, though nothing is really changing. Chrysler has been owned by someone else (Daimler, Cerberus) for the better part of two decades, but it still seemed like it was Chrysler in the traditional sense: A Big 3 automaker in Detroit. Now, it's clearly the US division of a multinational industrial empire; that's good thing for its future stability, but bittersweet nonetheless. Undoubtedly, it's an emotion that's also being felt at Fiat's Turin, Italy, headquarters as the company will no longer officially be called Fiat there. Digest that for a moment. What began in 1899 as the Societa Anonima Fabbrica Italiana di Automobili Torino – or FIAT – is now FCA Italy SpA. In a statement, FCA said the move "is intended to emphasize the fact that all group companies worldwide are part of a single organization." The new names are the latest changes orchestrated by CEO Sergio Marchionne, who continues to makeover FCA as an international automaker that has ties to its heritage – but isn't tied down by it. Everything from the planned spinoff of Ferrari, a new FCA headquarters in London and the pending demise of the Dodge Grand Caravan in 2016 has shown that the company is willing to move quickly, even if it's controversial. While renaming the United States and Italian divisions were the moves most likely to spur controversy, FCA said other regions across the globe will undergo similar name changes this year. Despite the mixed emotions, it's worth noting: The name of the merged company that oversees all of these far-flung units is Fiat Chrysler Automobiles. Obviously the Chrysler corporate name isn't completely history.