Loaded with electronic features, cars are fast becoming smartphones on wheels, and that makes the view from the driver’s seat more important than ever. The dashboard is a focal point of competition, and automakers are embracing displays, designs, and development platforms in search of the best fit for infotainment, comfort, safety, and performance systems, most of which require driver interaction.
Like smartphones for which myriad “apps” are available, automakers are allowing customers to personalize their vehicles. Visteon Corporation, for example, designed a configurable digital instrument cluster platform for Jaguar Land Rover’s Range Rover that features a 12.3-inch color display – one of the largest available in a vehicle – with a virtual speedometer, virtual gauges, and a message center. Drivers can customize the system warnings and vehicle information displayed in the message center as well as the audio and telephone displays. The message center provides information on steering angle, wheel articulation, suspension settings, and Terrain Response™ settings, and the instrument cluster can reconfigure itself dynamically as the vehicle shifts from one drive mode to another.
“Integrating larger and more complex color displays is cutting edge in driver information systems today,” says James Farrell, Visteon’s senior manager for driver information. “This allows automakers to bring the consumer electronics experience into their vehicles, which is a growing expectation of the driver.”
Ford designed the human-machine interface (HMI) for its Lincoln C concept vehicle with steering wheel controls, touch screens, and voice activation. The steering wheel controls use five-way mapping (up/down/left/right/OK) similar to that found on many cell phones and MP3 players.
“We knew we had to create a way for people to interface with their vehicle that was more manageable and limitless in its ability to incorporate new innovations as they come,” says Gary Braddock, Ford’s group chief designer. “Our HMI had to create for the auto world what the mouse is to the PC world.”
Ford Fusion and Mercury Milan hybrids offer SmartGauge™ with EcoGuide, a feature that coaches owners on how to optimize their vehicle’s performance. It uses two high-resolution color display (LCD) screens on either side of the analog speedometer that can be configured to show different levels of information, including fuel and battery power levels, and average and instant miles-per-gallon. Long-term fuel efficiency can be shown as a traditional chart or as a display of leaves and vines. The more efficient a driver is, the more leaves and vines they see.
“We needed to create a system that better communicates with drivers and gives them the tools to maximize fuel efficiency,” notes Ford senior technical leader Jeff Greenberg. “When you’re driving, you have a second or so to look at your display. A dense display isn’t going to work.”
“Compelling graphical user interfaces are a brand-identifying, market-distinguishing characteristic,” observes Peter Abowd, president of worldwide automotive at software developer Altia, Inc. Visteon used Altia software to develop information screens for the Range Rover.
“In the late ’80s, there were washout problems and other technology issues with liquid crystal displays,” Abowd explains. “Then, in the ’90s, consumer electronics exploded and prices started dropping. In the early ‘00s we began to see more sophisticated displays on phones, and debate began about how to get those same kinds of displays into the car and the center stack.
“There had always been some sort of message center, and the desire to make it look beautiful had always been there, but the consumer electronics explosion made chips more affordable, and affordable chips enabled attractive, compelling, and affordable displays – an extension of consumer electronics and a reflection of what’s happening with smart phones and other consumer devices.”
“The changes started about ten years ago when luxury class car models became so stuffed with additional functions and features that car manufacturers began to look for suitable means to remove clutter from the car interior,” says Ronald Schaare, marketing manager at Preh GmbH, a developer of driver information and control systems. “This led to the widely discussed introduction of BMW’s iDrive controller, which replaced many switches by a combination of one central control knob and a display screen.”
Schaare notes that pushbuttons provide a simple and efficient HMI as long as the number of functions does not lead to a flood of switches in the cockpit. “Having too many buttons to choose from can be confusing and can lead to driver distraction; therefore, several years ago engineers went to the other extreme with a very puristic HMI approach that left only a few switches in the car cockpit – the first iDrive control knob in the BMW 7 Series. Many users found this puristic central control system too complicated, and too distracting.”
The 2009 7 Series iDrive, manufactured by Preh, combines a center control knob, which responds to turning, tilting and pressing, and is backlit for nighttime use, with seven buttons and/or rocker switches that provide direct access to the core functions of the menu prompts.
“The best driver information system provides the driver the information they need, when they need/request it, efficiently and accurately while reducing distractions,” says Visteon’s Farrell. “The main focus for the driver is to drive – so we need to get the driver the information they need as efficiently as possible.”