JLR’s ‘Rudy’ robot ensures car doors don’t freeze up this Christmas

There’s a JLR employee who’ll be working non-stop throughout the Christmas period – a robot called ‘Rudy’ that carries out a lifetime of door usage checks before a car is signed off.

Rudy the Robot is JLR’s ‘trusted automated colleague’ that operates in minus 40-degree conditions to ensure the durability of JLR vehicle doors.

Employed at the firm’s Gaydon facility, Rudy opens and closes a test vehicle door 84,000 times over 12 weeks in sub-zero temperatures to simulate a lifetime of use. It means that during the Christmas period alone, Rudy will open a Range Rover door over 14,000 times.

JLR says that a full 12-week testing cycle is equivalent to a human lifting weights in the gym three times a week for more than 17 years – though gym-goers don’t tend to be working out in temperatures similar to those found in the North Pole. Rudy also operates in high temperatures akin to those in the arid Death Valley, California.

Thomas Mueller, JLR executive director, product engineering, said: “Quality across the whole client ownership experience is a top priority at JLR. Rudy is just one of our vital robots representing our rigorous vehicle component testing programme, which is dedicated to evaluating vehicle parts in the most extreme conditions over a simulated lifetime of usage.

“This helps to ensure their durability and gives our clients the quality levels expected of a modern luxury brand.”

JLR’s Gaydon facility is home to a number of simulation facilities which allow the brand to test real-world conditions in a central location. It even has a tarmacked test track which incorporates speed bumps and manhole covers to help testers replicate real-life road hazards.