Land Rover LR3 sat-nav used to guide cargo plane
As part of its "Designed for the Extraordinary" marketing campaign, the adventurous folks at Land Rover rolled a 2006 LR3 onboard a C-130 "Hercules" cargo plane, and then the flight crew used the car's nav system to navigate the plane from Nice, France to the island of Corsica.
In true over-the-top marketing-speak, Sally Eastwood, VP marketing for Land Rover North America, says, "This is a truly extraordinary demonstration of the capability and adventure inherent within all Land Rover vehicles, and the LR3 in particular." We're not sure we'd go quite that far, but the innovative P.R. stunt should make for a cool TV spot for those interested in the "off road" capabilities of the LR3's nav system.
[Sources: Land Rover; AdWeek]
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)
Juan 8:44PM (5/01/2006)
Clever stunt, I'll give them credit for that. But the reality is that you can do the same thing with a sub $100 over-the-counter GPS unit.
Imagine then, how capable you could be offroad if you bought a cheap GPS, and put it in a real off-roader?
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jjm 8:49PM (5/01/2006)
how does the GPS unit receive the singal while surrounded by cargo plane?
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Alex 5:16AM (5/02/2006)
It's foolish. Who can believe it? I want to see facts which are proved by official sites
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Greg 6:07AM (5/02/2006)
Did not seem that impressive. Any Sat/Nav (if the signal can be received) should display coordinates off road (see comment on sub $100 unit at your local discount chain or box of oatmeal). Ok, so maybe the ground breaking technology is they included a map with Corsica?
I was more impressed with Range Rover using France as a starting point! I peugeot in your general direction.
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Puff Chippy 8:44AM (5/02/2006)
They probably discovered this stunt by accident while using it to guide its tow truck to the nearest Land Rover service center.
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JS 8:56AM (5/02/2006)
As a former Land Rover owner and enthusiast I can say that most of the above are true...except Juan who just appears like a dim whitted simpleton with comments like "a real off-roader?" Care to point to a more capable, versatile, well traveled vehicle in the world? Im all ears my good man.
The stunt is pretty neat and jjim points out the obvious, doesnt GPS need to be able to "see" the sky in order to receive uninterupted signals that might guide the vehicle to its destination? At any rate, the LR3 is still a very capable vehicle, sans GPS or not, so it should be able to get you where you want to go regardless; Even if your destination is not as exotic as Corsica but more the flavor of the grocery store.
p.s. whats up with all the Land Rover bashing of late?
Quality is WAYYYYYY UP (trust me...i use to believe the old addage that my car didnt leak oil, it was just marking its territory) and design is fairly innovative and forward looking and they are expanding their model line to include more marketing groups. I really see no faults that other car companies dont face themselves.
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David F 9:40AM (5/02/2006)
Planes are made of aluminium and fiber glass, not lead, so satellite signals should have no problem getting through.
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mickster 10:02AM (5/02/2006)
What would really have been cool is if they dropped the LR3 out of the C130, had chutes deploy, land it on the road, with the engine on, and then pressed a button on the dash to release the chutes...then the camera pans to a dapper dressed Englishman in a tuxedo and he turns to the camera and says:
"Rover, Land Rover."
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Takeo 12:24PM (5/02/2006)
#6 David F, don't talk out your ass man, GPS signals are easily blocked by any contiguous metal structure. The reciever needs to see the sky. Besides GPS in average aviation navigation has to be no where near as precise as when used for ground navigation. The $100 unit at your local hardware store would do as good a job.
GPS is used for landing, but those are altogether more precise devices.
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Rob 12:55PM (5/02/2006)
umm is their quality really up that much? where did you hear that?
as far as i remember, they were somewhere near the bottom, next to kia (no offense to kia, of course)
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Johannes Vinke 6:12PM (5/02/2006)
Why do so many people complain about the quality of land Rovers, they're perfectly fine, believe me...
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Johannes Vinke 6:12PM (5/02/2006)
Why do so many people complain about the quality of land Rovers, they're perfectly fine, believe me...
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scott peterson 6:41PM (5/02/2006)
My friend just got an LR3, and makes my FX35 like a noisy, oddly-shaped, unsophisticated fake SUV - some like a toyota celica of sports cars. The LR3 had twice the metal, ten times the suspension, tons more elegance, and useful technological features, such as suspension control that NASA could probably use. Most importantly, Ill probably get sued for the amount of passengers that have bumped their head on the fx35's rediculous roof-line. I cannot wait for my rattle-y FX35 lease to be over.
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Sheriff of Ballsville 1:55AM (5/03/2006)
Developing tech for the Air Rover?
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paul goodyear 9:32AM (5/03/2006)
This is unreal!!! A Vehicle GPS system that can connect to the country's Air Traffic Control, and navigate you round no fly zones, and calcualte your route so you dont collide with other LR3 / C-130 holiday makers. Am I close?
The best TV Ad they could do would be to show potential customers the best way to get finaance to buy one.
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toodles 3:03PM (5/03/2006)
Pure stupidity here. Yes the signals can travel through the plane's structure. "can't travel through metal"... Um, then how do they go through your car. And most cars are more enforced with heavier metals then a plane.
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chris 4:55PM (5/03/2006)
Mickster -
You missed your calling, you should be in marketing!
"Rover, Land rover"
freakin' brilliant!
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Sean 12:31AM (5/04/2006)
My portable Garmin GPS unit picks up one satellite in the straight above orientation when I'm inside the middle of my one story house in a room where no windows are close...so you don't have to have a clear view of the sky. That's going through shingles/plywood/rafters/more plywood.
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ssgtakeo 2:44AM (5/04/2006)
Yeah Sean, what is it that's the common thread of everything you just mentioned? WOOD! Dry wood is dialectrically neutral. I said contiguous METAL structure. Believe me I've tried to use a GPS inside a flying C-130, no juice, at least until I stick the antenna to a window.
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Andrea 2:21PM (5/05/2006)
I thought it was a pretty creative take on a car commercial...got people's attention, didn't it? The nav performed in the air and can do the same on the ground...that combined with what the car already has going for it makes it worth checking out, imo.
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