Haven't seen it in person but apparently for 2018MY F-TYPE, they will no longer use "SDD" (Symptom Driven Diagnostics) but will be switching to a new system called "Pathfinder". I think some 2017MY LR/RR have already switched to this new system.

To me this just means that for us with pre 2018MY cars, it maybe difficult/impossible to retrofit 2018MY parts onto our cars.

 

The reason for SDD being retired and Pathfinder being introduced is more because of the contract with Ford expiring, as the SDD is based on the Ford IDS, so JLR has to pay Ford to keep using it.

The major change to the cars themselves is the infotainment system, the Next Generation Infotainment (NGI) is an ethernet-based system, vs the older MOST fibre-optic infotainment i.e. the IAM2.1

So yeah, you could not (easily or economically) retrofit the NGI system into an IAM2.1 car, for example. The components and network are totally different.

But... the NGI has been in some JLR vehicles since 2016, and is supported by SDD. There will be a cutoff where new models are no longer supported by SDD and only by Pathfinder. But Pathfinder also works on older vehicles too, back to 2014MY (approximately).

 

Cue the Mangoose Patfinder :-)

 

Not likely, the hardware interface is totally different and far more complicated than the older J2534 stuff. Mongoose is not compatible with it.

 

This means that old system, effective immediately, will no longer be patched. This likely means that getting software updates or even recall for older system will become increasingly hard.

 

I wouldn't rule out the wily ways of the Chinese eBay cloner ;-0

But that looks shiny with nice lights. More complicated hmmmm. Does that mean the new minimum charge for out of warranty/TSB software updates is now going to be two hours instead of the present one with SDD ?

 

Unlikely for many many years. The OEMs don't just stop supporting things when they move on to a new system.

 

No, SDD is still being updated, was a new patch released a couple of days ago.

There is a considerable crossover between SDD and pathfinder, in coverage I mean.

The pathfinder covers vehicles back to 2014, so your car is covered into the future as well.