back to article Jaguar Land Rover ropes in Gorillaz to help it lure 5,000 'electronic wizards'

Jaguar Land Rover has enlisted a cartoon musician to help it fill what it says are 5,000 electronics and software vacancies across the firm. Noodle, “guitarist” of virtual band Gorillaz, is fronting the JLR advertising campaign. The band is actually the work of Blur frontman Damon Albarn and his cartoonist mate Jamie Hewlett, …

  1. Tronald Dump

    Hopefully this'll improve reliability, yeah right

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      My understanding is that Jags are a lot more reliable these days and that this has been the case for a number of years. The old joke used to be something like 'if you are going to buy a Jag then get two so you can continue to drive whilst the other is in the workshop'.

      Land Rover on the other hand...

      http://www.autoexpress.co.uk/car-news/consumer-news/91220/the-most-and-least-reliable-car-manufacturers-2016

      (The old joke there was/is "If you are going to drive into the desert take a Range Rover. If however you want to return take a Land Cruiser")

      1. MJI Silver badge

        But you still need

        The Land Rover product to extract the LC WHEN it gets stuck.

    2. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      They've been fine since Ford bought them

      1. MJI Silver badge

        Not so sure

        Quite a few engine problems, nothing seems as reliable as the last 3 Land Rover designed lumps.

        The Trannie lump is not as reliable as a TDI300, not as smooth or powerful as a TD5

  2. Hans Neeson-Bumpsadese Silver badge

    Connected cars are a growing market for tech companies and staffers alike danger as carmakers continue developing ever more in-depth infotainment packages, as well as semi-autonomous driving technology and vehicle control and monitoring systems with no consideration for cybersecurity.

    FTFY

  3. wolfetone Silver badge

    "Your device doesn't support this app."

    Well, there's a ringing endorsement of the engineering behind the app.

    1. MiguelC Silver badge

      Wot you mean, no windows store app??

      1. wolfetone Silver badge

        "Wot you mean, no windows store app??"

        No, even worse.

        No Cyanogenmod compatible Android applications :(

  4. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Not quite 5000

    BBC reports it as "The firm said it would hire 1,000 electronic and software engineers and 4,000 workers across other sectors, including manufacturing".

    Anyhow, this is excellent news for the UK and in particular the Midlands. The snooty people who turn their nose up at the fact that the multinational firm that owns it is Indian should consider that Tata chose not to appoint tech workers in Bangalore.

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: Not quite 5000

      Hopefully some of those 1000 will be security engineers.

      I mean I wouldn't bet money on it, but we can hope.

      1. jmarked

        Re: Not quite 5000

        Same thought here. One employee could do a couple of useful apps.

    2. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: Not quite 5000

      The snooty people who turn their nose up at the fact that the multinational firm that owns it is Indian should consider that Tata chose not to appoint tech workers in Bangalore.

      Those snooty people may have a view on the fact that the I-Pace that fronts up the campaign, and is Jag's first EV is actually built by contract manufacturer Magna Steyr in Austria.

      Admittedly BMW and others do the same, including several Minis and 5 series variants, but even so, the British content of the I-Pace is possibly limited to the badge in the middle of the steering wheel.

    3. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: Not quite 5000

      I work for an offshore software services company.... the deals in the bag mate :) Im not joking!! Trebles all round!!!

    4. markp 1

      Re: Not quite 5000

      Wait, does this mean... Tata is outsourcing jobs... TO THE UK?

      #cheersbrexiteers

  5. Bob Vistakin
    Paris Hilton

    I'm on Windows Mobile

    Where's the app again?

    Paris, for once she was cool and trendy too,

  6. Andy 73 Silver badge

    Um... OK

    Like many of the people I work with, my CV shows a healthy history of innovation and near bleeding edge work across the embedded, connected and online spaces. If you want a dev who can do <insert tech here> I can probably point you to one. Happily that means every day is a problem solving day, presents new challenges and new information to pull apart.

    So the chances of fiddling around with someone's half baked 'challenge' to see if I'm bright.. um. No.

    I'm sure that marks me out as not suitable for the role - cheap and enthusiastic beats cynical and experienced any day.

    1. horsham_sparky
      FAIL

      Re: Um... OK

      Agreed, and ditto for my CV except on the Electronics side and add in many patents too :-)

      To me this is a thinly veiled attempt to discriminate against older engineers, since many of the grey haired masters of Electronics typically struggle with software and computers in general, nevermind smartphones and tablets.

      From reading other responses, I'm guessing their first challenge is getting the app installed and working..

    2. markp 1

      Re: Um... OK

      They're in a middle of an apprentice-recruiting binge at the moment, so it's unlikely they WANT old and experienced.

      I'm interested, but wondering if at 35 and a history mostly in IT services and AV I might already be too creaky and have too much knowledge under the belt.

  7. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    surely JLR are not on 'message'?

    Their bosses at TATA could do everything JLR want back home and at half the cost?

    So? Is doing Sofware development in India cheaper or not? PErsonally, I thing it ends up more expensive.

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: surely JLR are not on 'message'?

      My suspicion is that a lot of low level work will be done in India but, when it comes to entertainment and information systems, Indian workers won't have the cultural understanding of what the European and US public want.

      Samsung had this problem big time with phones at one time, and with the exception of Sony - who have lots of resources in the West - Japanese phone makers have not done well outside Japan.

      And doesn't Huawei have a lot of R&D in the UK these days?

      1. inmypjs Silver badge

        Re: surely JLR are not on 'message'?

        "And doesn't Huawei have a lot of R&D in the UK these days?"

        Because trying to make android look like iOS is a British thing?

        1. markp 1

          Re: surely JLR are not on 'message'?

          Johnny Ive is, unfortunately, one of ours, isn't he?

    2. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: surely JLR are not on 'message'?

      It is all about financing.

      A global corporation (and Tata is quite global all right) tries to minimize its tax burden by distributing tax deductible activities to tax regions. F.e you generate quite a bit of pre-tax profit in the UK. You want to spend some of that and the UK R&D cost being more expensive than India is part-offset by the corporate tax savings.

      Tata is not the only one here. There is a number of global corps which have large amounts of UK revenue which are preparing for an outside-Common-Market BrExit which will result in them not being able to use Eu expenses and R&D to minimize their tax bill. Amazon, MSFT, etc are hiring. I suspect Tata is playing the same game - claiming some R&D to offset their Uk corporate tax bill for the foreseeable future. I also suspect they will start twisting HMG arm for various tax credit, subsidies, etc after BrExit as well.

      Unfortunately, in the larger scheme of things, the hiring by these few is likely to be more than offset by the exodus of the others (who have Eu-associated income).

  8. inmypjs Silver badge

    I-PACE

    So that's a reference to what owners will be doing when the car breaks down or batteries run out?

  9. Doctor Syntax Silver badge

    From the Beeb's version:

    "Jaguar Land Rover has indicated half of all new models will be available in an electric version by the end of the decade, necessitating new skills among its staff."

    Sounds OK for a lot of those 4x4. School run and supermarket should fit in the range of a daily charge.

  10. Sir Sham Cad

    Intended to fire up

    “budding electronic wizards and coders”

    Gorillaz? Really?

    I mean, even I know their music and I'm about a thousand years old! Are they still relevant to Da Yoof?

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: Intended to fire up

      My 6th form, Computer Science, Pythontastic coder boy thinks Gorilaz not cool, old skool - personally I like them, but I am more than half a century old and I also like Pink Floyd so probably have zero cred.

      Interestingly his little brother has indicated a passing interest in Black Sabbath. May just have been the cool T-shirt he saw. Maybe JLR need to be having a chat with Ozzie for the next generation of ads?

      1. markp 1

        Re: Intended to fire up

        Well, if he's a Brummie lad, that's simply a case of paying respect to your local legends...

    2. markp 1

      Re: Intended to fire up

      They might have had a chance if Albarn and co hadn't decided to drop the cartoons on an increasingly regular basis. I liked them more when the kayfabe was still in place. All the IRL appearances kind of expose the reality of it being the pet project of a couple of 40somethings who were cool in the early-mid 90s and then started to have trouble staying relevant in their own right.... but didn't just retire to a life of Leisure on a pile of cash (or cheesemaking and poetry) like the other bandmembers.

      But then maybe they're not entirely after the 18-year-old vote, but the upper end of the ABC1s. People who have had a little experience in the work environment and know there's more to making electronics work than just putting Mindstorms together or buying RPi hats.

  11. NanoMeter

    So 2001

    This is so 2001, but I like it.

  12. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    All that effort and you end up working for TCS?!

    No thanks. They are shit.

  13. bombastic bob Silver badge
    Trollface

    Where can I find the girl in the ad?

    Where can I find the anime-looking girl in the ad? She's HOT! *WOW*!

    just hadta say that, heh.

  14. markp 1

    Slightly annoyed that it's iOS and Android only, as I already need to do a serious cleanout on my phone because the apps that are in there are overloading the available storage space... installing the 100+ updates that have built up aren't an immediate option right now, let alone something entirely new... and it's a slightly more capable model than - hopefully - most teenagers have.

    Though there are always those whose parents get them the latest and best of everything... :)

    A web version would have been nice... or Windows 10 appstore compatible, for the cheapie WX tablet I got recently. Hopefully it is at least droid tablet compatible (rather than demanding to be installed on a phone as certain apps do) so I can borrow one to give the test a go.

    (I may or may not be on the lookout for a job of that description, is the thing - that and I live within much easier reach of two of their larger factories than I do my current place of work...)

  15. Jan 0 Silver badge

    What should they call themselves?

    Since this company has stopped making Land Rovers and, arguably, Jaguars, isn't it time it changed it's name? How's about:

    TATACAR?

    XJLR?

    Squ?ggle (The company formerly known as ...)

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