In car software updates without the need to visit a dealer is now standard on every new Jaguar and Land Rover model on the local market.

Jaguar Land Rover is also offering the SOTA (Software-Over-the-Air) capability, and Touch Pro and Touch Pro Duo infotainment upgrades – including Smartphone Pack – to existing customers in South Africa. These complimentary updates are compatible with most vehicles made from the 2016 model year onwards, depending on specification level.

Nick Rogers, Director Product Engineering, Jaguar Land Rover, says: “We are passionate about creating and delivering the latest technology to our customers. Building on the connected capability of the new Defender, we have made our software-over-the-air capability for infotainment updates standard on all our vehicles.

“Of course, we want our existing customers to benefit from the latest connected features as well, which is why we are offering them a complimentary upgrade to enable this capability on their vehicles too, together with the latest updates for their Touch Pro and Touch Pro Duo infotainment systems.”

Aside from the Smartphone Pack, which enables customers to use compatible apps on their smartphones – such as music streaming, navigation and text message dictation – via the vehicle’s touchscreen, the very latest versions of the Touch Pro and Touch Pro Duo system software makes operation quicker, easier, and more intuitive.

The possibilities for future improvements of user interfaces and software capabilities are near endless, and will continue to be rolled out as upgrades are developed and made available. In some of the most recent updates items such as Bluetooth connectivity, on-board media players and climate control screens have been upgraded as part of SOTA functionality.

Compatible Jaguars and Land Rovers have added a skip function within their media players, allowing users to move forward ‘+15’ seconds and back ‘-15’ seconds while listening to podcasts. Improvements have been made to the way Bluetooth devices are paired and icons in the climate screens, such as digital buttons for air Ionisation activation have been changed to different designs – much like app icons in smartphone updates.

Customers with SOTA-enabled vehicles will be able to quickly and easily download new software themselves via a micro SIM card in the vehicle, or through a Wi-Fi connection. Via the touch screen, customers are able to turn software updates on or off enabling them to activate the download at times which are most convenient to them.

As updates become available, vehicles will display a pop-up notification within the infotainment system and users will be able to accept the prompt in much the same way as smartphone software updates. Another message on the screen will notify of successful installation completions.

The complimentary upgrade is available on vehicles built with Touch Pro and Touch Pro Duo infotainment from 2016 model year onwards, and include Jaguar XE, XF, XJ, E-PACE, F-PACE, I-PACE and F-TYPE; as well as Land Rover Discovery and Discovery Sport; Range Rover, Range Rover Sport, Velar and Evoque

Customers with 2019-2020 Model Year vehicles will already have SOTA functionality integrated into their infotainment systems.