Hyundai's study on virtual cockpit
Cars have long since ceased to be just a simple means of transportation.
Requirements for a modern cockpit have changed enormously over the past decade. There is an ever-growing variety of information shared with the driver in the cockpits, especially on the displays.
Since 2015, there have been four significant project phases in the development of cockpits at Hyundai.
An evaluation of Hyundai’s steering wheels and cockpits, as well as those of competitor cars, showed a broad variety and a substantial number of buttons.
It became Hyundai’s target to reduce this number and to create a clean interface. The brand therefore opted to replace the rocker switches with two touch panels to make its steering wheels more intuitive.
In a project phase in 2016, Hyundai went a step further by replacing all hard keys with touchpads. This new development led to increased clarity and flexibility.
The 2017 development phase even brought flexibility to a new level by making the cockpit easily customizable for users. Hyundai then replaced the touchpads of the 2016 model with two displays.
In 2018, Hyundai focused on improving the existing concept of touch displays with haptic feedback on the steering wheel. Hyundai consequently used the steering wheel of the European i30 model.
The steering wheel is equipped with two displays which have been increased in size and ergonomically adjusted. In order to respond ideally to the needs of each driver, the buttons can be adapted to the individual wishes of the operator.
In the latest development stage, the instrument cluster display was changed to a multi-layer display (MLD). It allows a new, very natural way of attention control.
In contrast to conventional displays, which can only display their contents on one level, the MLD consists of two displays, which are stacked behind each other at a distance of six mm.
The pieces of information indicated on the steering wheel displays change depending on the current instrument cluster menu level and also depending on the driving situation. Furthermore, the customer can change the layout and the displayed “shortcuts” for entering specific applications tailored to his or her individual needs.
The driver can customize the settings with up to five buttons per display, adjusted to preferences and frequency of usage, much like the layout of a smartphone.
Keyword: Hyundai Reveals Cockpit of the Future