MG Motor to unveil first internet SUV in India

Pune: Marquee British automaker MG Motor, now owned by China's SAIC Motor, is all set to launch India's first connected car christened 'The Hector' and disrupt the competitive car space in Asia's third biggest economy.

Slated for sales by June, the all-new Hector SUV is expected to be priced in the Rs 18 lakh-Rs 20 lakh range.

With the launch of new Hector, the 95-year-old British automaker is all set to disrupt the passenger car industry in the country, with its cutting edge car technology, developed in partnership with global technology players.

According to the company, it is powered by iSMART technology from MG Motor, which includes an embedded connectivity solution, maps and navigation services, voice assistant, pre-loaded infotainment content, emergency and information services, and built in apps.

Rajeev Chaba, President and Managing Director at MG Motor India said since Hector also supports Over-The-Air (OTA) updates, it makes it one of the only cars in the world to come integrated with the OTA feature.

Experts pointed out that this technology was developed about three years ago between Chinese tech giant Alibaba and SAIC.

The company officials revealed several "industry-first" features of Internet-enabled cars that will be available in Hector.

Similar to Tesla, Hector too will have a 10.4" head unit - a touch screen that is the biggest in the auto market in India. The screen is designed with a vertical interface that allows the driver to control the entire car system with just a touch or voice command.

The unit will be pre-loaded with entertainment content--there will be10 pre-loaded videos downloaded, a pre-loaded Gaana app with a premium account and accuweather which will help the customers to access music and weather forecasts. All apps have been specially customized for Hector's large head unit.

This unit has an embedded machine to machine (M2M) SIM which ensures that the car remains connected. The customized solution has been developed by Unlimit-an Anil Ambani-owned Reliance Group company--in partnership with Cisco and Airtel.

The connected mobility solution on Hector is Internet Protocol Version 6 (IPV6), which is 5G-ready. This seamless connectivity enables the users to receive real-time software, entertainment content and application updates.

Customers will be able to download the software updates immediately or schedule them for later, as in smart phones.

This makes MG the first few among the global leaders and the first in India to bring the revolutionary OTA technology to cars.

The OTA feature would be standard in all MG cars enabled with iSMART Next Gen for connected mobility, starting with MG Hector.

"With an embedded SIM card and OTA, the MG Hector promises to do a lot more over time with constantly-expanding capabilities, to create a seamless driving experience, throughout the life of the car," Chaba claimed.

Moreover, with the advent of 5G connectivity in India, MG cars would have the potential to add new, breakthrough features to further enrich the car driving experience, he said.

Adding more power to the car will be an artificial intelligence (AI)-based voice assistant that works on the cloud.

Developed by Nuance for MG India, it has been specifically designed for India for Indian accent learning. As a result of in-built AI and Machine Learning (ML) algorithms, the system will learn and get better every day with usage.