Land Rover's robo-SUVs will take away the tedious and just leave the fun

The list of new technologies is borderline mind boggling. But just how realistic is it and when can we expect to see any of this stuff on Land Rovers you can actually buy?

To find the answers to these questions and more, we caught up with Dr Wolfgang Epple, Director of Research and Technology for both Land Rover and sister brand Jaguar.

First up, just how realistic is it for Land Rover to develop autonomous cars? After all, Google has been throwing money at it for years and still has plenty of work to do. Epple says that much of the development heavy lifting is done by Land Rover's suppliers including Bosch.

The likes of Bosch develop the underlying hardware and software platforms, he says. Land Rover involvement involves the the top layer of actuators and fine tuning. As for when we might see something approaching an autonomous Land Rover, Epple's answer is startling. "Within 10 years."

To be clear, that's not necessarily a fully autonomous Landie. More an 'intelligent' SUV with extensive autonomous capabilities.

So what about the in-car technology? We know the In Control app is immenent. How long before the gesture control, smart glass and the rest appear?

Epple says gesture controls are "coming soon". He won't put a precise date on it but does say it will be "sooner than five years".

The other features are a little further out and fall into that 10-year intelligent SUV category. But it's good to see Land Rover emphasising partnerships with companies like Intel for onboard computing power and Apple with its CarPlay interface for multimedia.

Realistically, Land Rover can't reinvent this wide range of technologies on its own. But Epple makes a pretty convincing argument for how Land Rover can work with partners to create an SUV with world-beating tech.

Land Rovers, of course, have always been market leading. For the future, that has to mean market leading tech.

The Discovery Vision concept proves Land Rover knows that. So even if some of the technologies on display are a little pie-in-the-sky, the important point is that the company knows what has to be done. It's looking very promising.