► Lightweight Electronics in Simplified Architecture
► Jag Land Rover launches new LESA tech
► We explain the new tech’s benefits
Jaguar Land Rover’s new Lightweight Electronics in Simplified Architecture (LESA) is a new tech claimed to reduce weight of cars and allow owners to personalise body part colours and have digital read-outs displayed anywhere in an interior.
The new tech prints electronics circuit boards on to car parts, rather than relying on traditional ECUs and bulky printed circuit boards; it’s similar to the technology already deployed on curved OLED televisions and wearables such as smartwatches.
Jaguar Land Rover (JLR) says the breakthrough tech is a first in the automotive space and predicts it will allow curved screens in its cars, body panels to change colour and even digital dials to be printed on to wooden veneers without the need for a separate screen.
Crucially, it also cuts weights of electrical circuitry by up to 60% – an important win in this age of CO2 targets and the need for light weighting.
The future for car interiors is going to be buttonless, with controls and instruments showing in more innovative places – only when required. JLR cites a new roof control switch it has prototyped, which weighed 60% less and shrunk from 50mm to 3.5mm thick.