Consortium TomTom schreef op 4 december 2018 17:48:
Many screens, two eyes and one task: drive!
Published on 2018 M12 4
Fabrizio Monaco
Fabrizio MonacoFollow
Product Manager at TomTom Automotive
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“It was better before, when the car was just a steering wheel and a gear stick!”
These are the words that my grandfather used to say to me whenever a new car model would come out. While innovation in technology is a good thing, his words serve as a reminder that, no matter how advanced our vehicles become, the interests they always still need to serve are those of the user.
Tech for good
In my previous post, we looked at why providing a modern embedded navigation user experience that reduces driver distraction is mission-critical for TomTom. It is important that we use technology for the betterment of society and look at the possibilities technological advancement bring with a critical eye.
So what is happening in the market today? Let’s have a look at some of the key technological trends that are changing modern infotainment systems.
First of all, the overall computational capabilities are consistently increasing, allowing multiple applications with high CPU demands – think about the natural voice recognition system – to run at the same time, in the background or one next to the other.
We’re also witnessing an increase in both the quantity and quality of screens deployed in the interiors of cars. Nowadays, it is not uncommon to encounter cars featuring one or more passengers displays – on the front as well the back seats, together with a monitor in the center stack, a digital cluster and a head up display on the windscreen. When it comes to quality, we observe a large increase in the number of available pixels with many car manufacturers and infotainment system suppliers targeting full HD (or even 4K) resolutions for digital displays in the near future.
One key question
At TomTom, we leverage technology to foster innovation in embedded navigation systems. When designing our automotive HMI (Human-Machine Interface), we ask ourselves one key question: which screen is the most suitable to perform each navigation related cognitive task with the least user distraction?
Knowing where to show each piece of information boils down to understanding the relevance of content at a specific moment in time, in the very dynamic context of a moving vehicle.
The right information in the right place
Our user experience analysis highlighted that planning a route (searching for a destination, looking for the details of a point of interest) or browsing the map are tasks that fit perfectly into the central display as well as passenger screens. However, the decision to use all of these screens needs to consider wider implications. Imagine if your kids could change the set destination from their back seats…
The cluster display, with its position directly below the windscreen, is instead well suited to host anticipation information – the driving context showing a short horizon in front of the vehicle. The cluster display is perfect for showing when to switch lanes before approaching the highway exit, or the maneuver to be performed in 2 km from the current position.
Finally, the heads-up display is best suited for priority tasks in which the time to react is key, like traffic ahead warnings, over-speed alerts or highlighting key decision points for alternative routes.
Our automotive HMI is built taking into account these considerations while being flexible regarding the hardware capabilities of the infotainment system. Thanks to the use of the QT development framework, our navigation application is built on a single code line and can be delivered on a wide variety of screens in terms of size, density, aspect ratio and resolution, both landscape and portrait mode.
Interesting?
Are you curious to learn more about how we’re fighting driving distraction in our automotive HMI? Then let’s meet at the QT World Summit 2018 on 6th December in Berlin and I’ll be happy to show you a live demo!
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