Why the Land Rover Discovery Vision Concept Matters

First of all, Land Rover put on a monstrous effort to launch the Discovery Vision Concept on the USS Intrepid, which was sitting quietly on the Hudson river in New York. The location, however, was not at all random, as Land Rover has just signed a long-term global partnership with Virgin Galactic, Richard Branson commercial spaceline. Well, for one thing, Land Rover wants us to see the Discovery Vision Concept as something coming from outer space.

This is why they’ve packed the concept with enough new technology for an entire range of cars.

Starting from the front of the car, we get laser headlights, which can create a cone of light so that they don’t interfere with incoming traffic, for example. The foglights also use laser technology, being integrated in the Laser Terrain Scanning. This “reads” the road ahead for the driver. Land Rover explains that this is part of a low-speed autonomous offroad driving system.

Staying with the laser theme, we also receive Laser Referencing, which can project warning signals onto the road

The Discovery Vision Concept treats its occupants with Smart Glass. This is used for the windows, as well as for the panoramic roof. First of all, this allows for images to be projected onto it. Land Rover has already demonstrated this when it previewed the Transparent Bonnet. Basically, for the humans inside, the car can simulate the fact that it is invisible, thus reinventing both offroading and parking.

As far as the driving technology is concerned, the car can be remotely controlled using an app. This allows the driver to step out of the vehicle and guide it though difficult situations. Nonehteless, we’re not quite sure how this fits with the driving legislation. What’s more, the aforementioned laser road scanning is used in the next-gen Terrain Response system, which prepares the car for incoming conditions.

The interior mixes seven individual seats with a central touchscreen and two touch units on the steering wheel. Each passenger from the second and third row gets a dedicated infotainment screen, while the car can also connect to multiple smartphones simultaneously. What’s more, the driver operates the lights and the turn signals via gestures.
So far, so good, but we’ll have to wait and see how many of these features will make it into Land Rover’s future cars.

Alas, the design of the Land Rover Discovery Vision Concept is another thing altogether. By the looks of it, the automaker could be aiming to move the Discovery from the current offroader image to a crossover. In fact, the biggest issue here is the fact that the design lacks the personality required for a proper Discovery successor. The Discovery has always been a killer offroader with rugged looks to beat any superhero and we’d like this to stay this way.

Regardless of this, the Discovery Vision Concept previews not just a new Discovery, but an entire family of Land Rover models. As with the Range Rover, the carmaker wants to create a Discovery family.

Indicating that the future Discovery could be softened up, is the fact that this sub-range will also include a rugged offroader, something to battle cars like the Toyota Land Cruiser.

In addition, the future Discovery Family will include two Freelander replacement versions, a five-seater and a seven-seater.

While the New York Auto Show isn’t likely to bring any extra info, we should start spying test vehicles for the job soon. Meanwhile, you can check out all the details on the matter in the press release below.