Dyson chief engineer, Jake Dyson has revealed that Dyson engineers are working on a new generation of intelligent, self-improving, connected products, as the company builds up its software-based team.
In a new Dyson YouTube video, Dyson confirms the company is putting software and connectivity at the centre of its future product pipeline designed to fix issues before the owners of Dyson machines are aware of a problem.
Dyson machines already use a myriad of sensors, electronics, control systems and layers of software code, made possible by a tenfold growth in software developers since 2012, and Dyson is committed to further growing its team around the world.
“Where software and data science take us isn’t gimmickry or fruitless features. It’s about bringing purpose and making people’s lives easier – we look after the product without customers having to worry. We’ve invested in our laboratories and campuses in the UK, Singapore, Phillipines and Poland for our growing engineering team working on top secret and sustainable smart technologies with a 15-year outlook,” Dyson said.
Software used to be about controlling individual components, but it is now critical across every function of Dyson technology. Embedded software, app and cloud development, as well as layers of onboard software – algorithms, machine learning, artificial intelligence – on Dyson products enable them to do sophisticated things beyond mechanics.
For example, customers could only turn the motor on for Dyson’s first vacuum but today’s Dyson vacuums display battery life, adjust energy use depending on floor type, and much more.
Dyson CEO, Roland Krueger said, “Dyson is implementing its five year 2.75 billion Pound investment plan expanding in the UK, Singapore, Asia, Europe and Americas. In November 2020, we announced that we are investing into new technologies such as energy storage, robotics, machine learning and e-commerce. We are now delivering on our promise.
“These investments lay the foundation of expanding our product categories and entirely new fields of products for Dyson. Our ‘Drive to Digitalisation’ with a focus on software skills across the entire company is a core element of these investments and will be instrumental to write a new chapter for Dyson.”