Portland Playground for Jaguar Land Rover
Nike has a new British neighbour. How posh, indeedPortland, Oregon is a long way away from Gaydon and culturally the two cities are even further apart. Changing fish and chips for Voodoo Donuts, British Aerospace for Boeing and bad weather for even worse weather partly explains why JLR has opened its first overseas R&D technology centre on the US west coast.
JLR has plonked itself on a 15,000 sq/ft site (about 1400m²) alongside global brands such as Microsoft and Nike to centre itself in an extremely innovative and progressive culture surrounded by technologically creative neighbours. Portland has become what the Silicon Valley was 30 years ago. According to JLR, the £2m Open Software Technology Centre will focus on the development of advanced technologies and will assist development of future JLR infotainment systems.
The Open Software Technology Centre features a multimedia creative suite, innovation spaces, a development laboratory and a six-bay vehicle workshop. It employs a team of around 30 infotainment specialists, including 16 highly experienced software engineers.
Dr Wolfgang Epple, Director of Research and Technology, JLR said: "Our new Open Software Technology Centre will create many more opportunities for Jaguar Land Rover to collaborate with some of the most innovative and ground-breaking technology companies in the world."
"The Portland team will augment the skills of our 240-strong team of infotainment engineers in the UK, and they will develop and lead research projects with large and small technology companies up and down the US west coast. We want to help guide the technological direction these innovators are taking as they help us develop exciting new in-car experiences for our customers."
It is no coincidence that the Portland/Seattle area and surrounding Pacific Northwest also offers incredible off-road driving and some of North America's most extreme terrain waiting for Land Rover and the weekends.
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