Infotainment systems in Jaguar Land Rover products have irked us for a long while. They’re generally a good step — or several — behind other luxury automakers’ infotainment systems in terms of features and looks. But the big problem has always been their functionality. Even right out of the gate, they exhibited an undue amount of lag and general bugginess.
Pivi Pro is supposed to change all of that. It’s JLR’s completely new-from-the-ground-up infotainment system that is quickly spreading across the company’s range of products. It features a new screen size and layout. Plus, the software it’s running is vastly different from what we saw previously. Our Byron Hurd got a first taste of it with a number of JLR products in a short period of time and found it to be a big improvement. Now, we’ve had a new Land Rover Discovery in the garage for a longer period to fully suss out the system. Will it hold up? Watch the video above for a quick tour, and keep reading for some more detailed thoughts.
Before diving in too deep, you should know off the top that Pivi Pro is a massive improvement over JLR infotainment systems of old. There are still some issues, but the new system’s performance is exponentially better than what it’s replacing. This is partly thanks to it now running off its own backup battery. This allows the whole system to load immediately upon startup, ensuring that you aren’t sitting and waiting for items to populate after you press the start button.
The new 11.4-inch screen this software plays on is splendid to both look at and touch. It’s a super-high-resolution panel, and it takes to our inputs quickly and without protest. The new UI layout makes things easier and prettier, too. All of your important items are tucked into a panel on the left, making them super easy to find and select. Plus, a sticky “home” button means you can always find your way out of menus when you’re done diving around. We dig the three-panel home screen and its minimalist style, but for those who might favor maximum functionality over a pretty home screen, you can replace this with rows of app icons.
For those wanting to use their phones, there is indeed an in-car WiFi data plan available to buy. Plus, JLR newly allows you to connect two devices via Bluetooth instead of just one.
Both Apple CarPlay and Android Auto are nicely integrated with this new system. There’s a hard icon in the sticky left panel that pops up when you plug in, and the system goes full screen with the same, lovely high-res graphics. However, it wasn’t all positive. On two separate occasions we plugged our phones in, and Apple CarPlay refused to start. It took turning the car off, then back on again to reset its brains and make CarPlay function again.
And while we’re on the negatives, Pivi Pro still showed a minor amount of lag on a few occasions. It surfaced when we’d try and open some applications or the settings for the first time since turning the car on. Instead of instantly reacting to a finger prod, there’s a slight delay, and then the menu pops up. The voice commands are similarly disappointing. They’ll eventually get you what you want, but other recognition systems from competitors like Mercedes-Benz and BMW are simply quicker.
These are minor complaints compared to the problems we had with JLR’s outgoing system, though, so don’t misread them as damning of Pivi Pro as a whole. It truly is a huge step forward in usefulness and fluidity. Plus, JLR has the opportunity to improve this infotainment system over time, because it’s now capable of being updated over the air.
The more cars JLR can get this system into, the better at this point. As of today, you can find it in the Land Rover Discovery, Discovery Sport, Defender, Range Rover Velar and Range Rover Evoque. And in the Jaguar stable, it’s fitted to the F-Pace, E-Pace, I-Pace, XF and XE. That leaves only a few holdouts, but we’re sure the other big models aren’t far behind. Even if Pivi Pro isn’t an industry-changing infotainment system, it ensures that you won’t be passing JLR products because of their infotainment anymore.
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