Land Rover Turns to Tykes for Discovery Tweaks

Land Rover U.K. is using child labor to develop its vehicles, and the kids are loving it.

Throughout the thousands of hours of development that went into creating the new Land Rover Discovery SUV, a team of children has been testing, challenging and representing the needs of the modern family every day.

Land Rover says the toughest part was keeping everything from the kidsʼ parents a secret until the new car is revealed.

The automaker turned to children because when it set out to create the most capable family SUV, it decided it first must understand the needs of the world’s most capable families.

That’s why Land Rover’s designers and engineers took their work home with them for review by their children as they worked on the Discovery.

When it came to road testing, JLR decided, who better to create the final camouflage design for the Discovery than the junior brains that already know the new vehicle inside out?

Assigned to hide the Discovery’s design details, the children, aged between 5 and 9, set to work drawing their favorite days out and signing their names against their work.

Discovery Chief Engineer Alex Heslop says being able to get the children involved in the final camouflage design “brought a smile to all our faces.

“They don’t always realize it, but these kids have played a major role in developing the new Discovery,” Heslop says in a statement.

He says there’s no better insight into the needs of the modern family than the firsthand experience JLR gleans at home.

“That’s why we have up to nine USB ports to charge everyone’s devices, why we’ve got space to hide four iPads away securely and why every seat has been designed to be the best seat in the house,” Heslop says.

The Discovery also features a system that allows owners to configure their vehicle seating from anywhere through the InControl Remote app on their smartphone.

The world-first Intelligent Seat Fold technology allows the two rear rows of seats to be fully reconfigured in as little as 14 seconds through the app downloaded on any iOS or Android operating system.

Apart from the grueling test by child, Discovery is the first Land Rover to undergo a full program of virtual testing prior to the physical-testing process and before any prototypes are built.

Land Rover’s global engineering team subjected the vehicle to extreme climates and terrains in more than 20 countries. Sand driving in 104° F (40° C) heat in the dunes of Dubai, altitude testing in the Colorado mountains and ice-driving in the sub-zero temperatures of Arjeplog, Sweden, were part of a 28-month schedule.