When we heard Jaguar Land Rover had developed a new Contactless Touchscreen we smelled a rat. Jaguar Land Rover (JLR) doesn’t have the financial clout to be innovative, nor does it have the requisite imagination. We deliberated during our socially distanced SKYPE editorial meeting and determined that this new development was nothing more than a distraction. What event/story is JLR trying to conceal. That’s where our intelligence suffered a glitch. Apparently, Jaguar Land Rover’s new never-to-released contactless touch screen was co-developed with the University of Cambridge.

Jaguar Land Rover’s contactless touch screen allows the end-user to operate an infotainment system without having to touch the screen. A simple hand gesture will allow unfettered control. The predictive touch uses an array of sensors and specially written software to make it all work seamlessly.

But at the moment it’s a tech-demo/concept. More conceptual than tech/demo to be honest. Somewhat predictably JLR is marketing this technology as Covid-19 proof. What about wearing face-masks in enclosed spaces? Perhaps Jaguar Land Rover Should develop a digital face mask.

But here’s the deal, touchless technology isn’t new, BMW currently uses it and it doesn’t work too well. Volkswagen also uses it in a limited capacity and it is horrendously bad to use. What JLR isn’t telling you is that gesture-controlled devices are limited by the hardware.

The computer processing power required to make such a contactless system to operate flawlessly isn’t available right now. That is to say, more powerful computers that are small enough to fit into a car dashboard and make the gesture-controlled devices work as intended are at least 5-10 years away.

Somebody should tell Jaguar Land Rover about Moore’s Law. Why didn’t Cambridge University? Nevertheless, this JLR story is a marketing smokescreen and ultimately it is a distraction. Bad news is about to emerge from Jaguar Land Rover and not for the first time.