By Nick Carey

LONDON (Reuters) – Luxury carmaker Jaguar Land Rover said on Tuesday it is opening three new engineering hubs in Europe to develop autonomous vehicle technologies as part of its partnership with Silicon Valley artificial intelligence company Nvidia.

The hubs in Munich, Bologna and Madrid will develop self-driving systems for JLR’s next generation of luxury vehicles. JLR already has six global tech hubs the United States, China and Europe.

JLR, unit of India’s Tata Motors, said the locations were chosen because of the local availability of digital engineering specialists and will create almost 100 engineering jobs focused “on developing driver assistance systems and artificial intelligence for self-driving cars of the future.

JLR and Nvidia announced a multiyear agreement last year under which they will jointly develop the computer brains and nervous systems for Jaguars and Land Rovers launching in 2025 and beyond.

The partnership with Nvidia gives JLR a well-funded ally as it tries to catch up with Tesla Inc and other luxury vehicle rivals in a digital technology arms race.

(Reporting by Nick Carey; Editing by Sandra Maler)