As most economies around the world, including India, move towards their Sustainable Development Goals – the mobility technologies of tomorrow must be greener, more connected, more innovative and more eco-friendly.
Rapid transformation is taking place in the next generation of vehicles, which are increasingly becoming autonomous, digital and electric. At the same time, new revenue models such as ‘pay as you use’ are emerging in the transport market for certain mobility services, amenities and even entire vehicles.
How these new passenger cars operate, how new digital features ease customers’ use and how revenue models have changed in recent years will ultimately lead to the concept of the car of the future. Today, the automotive industry is re-imagining and redesigning the in-car experience of new vehicles, with Automotive OS, features built with advanced features. iot Technology and digital cockpit.
What are Digital Cockpits?
Visualize your car’s vital information including road maps and driver assistance features – right in front of you. In simple words, digital cockpit There is a full-digital, software-defined, in-vehicle dashboard system to help drivers as well as passengers travel safely and perform important driving tasks.
Digital cockpit platforms are flexible and scalable, and automotive players are building customized solutions around these platforms to create unique experiences for users. To do this, features and functions are being improved with the software via a car-to-cloud connection. In this regard, cloud-connected, smartphone, technology-driven companies, you name it, have it all together.
The size of the global automotive digital cockpit market, which was valued at US$ 19.8 billion in 2020, is expected to expand at a CAGR of 8.8 per cent in 2021-2028.
The COVID-19 pandemic has affected the overall automotive industry, resetting its growth trajectory in a matter of years. The added snag is the new compliance requirements and the semiconductor crisis.
However, in-vehicle telematics, infotainment systems, safety and pollution sensors, navigation and adoption of IoT are key factors driving the demand for automotive, digital cockpit solutions.
Moreover, the growing demand for better comfort, safety and convenience in vehicles, especially in emerging and developed economies, is poised to fuel the growth of the market going forward.
Some automobile brands call this the ‘Active Info Display’ and others call it the ‘Digital Cockpit’. Many other car manufacturers have developed their own systems as well – today you can find a digital instrument cluster in a variety of passenger car models.
Major technology companies are also heavily invested in building digital cockpit platforms or as suppliers or integrators of a key component of the solution. Many of them are gearing up to bring their OS, wider application ecosystem and material assets to the cockpit.
Keeping these market trends in mind, many smartphone makers are evaluating the automotive opportunity as well. Some of them are set to launch their own Electric Vehicles (EVs). Some are already influencing in-car connectivity technologies while others are partnering with automotive companies.
The smartphone can already be used as a digital key or for remote vehicle parking. From one app, drivers can manage the vehicle’s heating, ventilation and air conditioning (HVAC) controls, check the EV’s battery status, and so on. In-vehicle flash charging and wireless charging are also becoming increasingly possible today.
In short, the demand for connected infotainment solutions and digital cockpits is increasing in the automotive market.
It is estimated that by the end of 2022, more than 90 per cent of the passenger cars on the road will be connected to the internet with the help of 3G/4G connectivity.
There are four big trends shaping the future of the automotive world: (i.) connected, (ii.) autonomous driving, (iii.) shared mobility, and (iv.) electrification – or CASE, as it is popularly known. Is known. A common guiding principle among these four trends is going to be “user experience”.
Within CASE, electrification is the current discussion and many OEMs have outlined ambitious goals to electrify their fleets. Electrification will shift the focus from powertrain (RPM) to in-cabin experiences, as the differentiating factor for OEMs will no longer be engines or performance.
Natural language user interface, large and crisp displays, augmented reality, content in cars are some of the consumer experiences that are derived from smart devices, which will rapidly reach the automotive domain.
We can also expect safe driving assistance for drivers and passengers through multi-modal user interface (touch, gesture, haptics, voice, audio-sensory) as well as driver and occupant monitoring system.
In addition, government regulations will push additional features such as Intelligent Speed Assistance (ISA), Acoustic Vehicle Alert System (AVAS) and other safety and security features.
What factors should we keep in mind while designing a smart cockpit system?
Personal assistance and protection: The personal assistant car function is set to improve rapidly in times to come. Leading brands are already working on a range of tasks that are going to redefine developments in passenger car technology, such as voice recognition, artificial intelligence, Internet capabilities and driver stress detection. In terms of security, functional security requires a managed and integrated ecosystem. The automotive industry has adopted the ISO 26262 functional safety standard and expects OEMs and their suppliers to meet Required Automotive Safety Integrity Level (ASIL) requirements.
One Integrated Unit: The current generation of automotive processors is fast enough to bring cost savings by combining multiple, previously isolated systems into a single integrated unit. The integrated system has the capability to play high-definition graphics on multiple screens simultaneously. It appears that in the not-too-distant future, cars will be able to communicate with their surroundings at lightning-fast speeds, operating with greater autonomous capability. In that regard, the TFT-LCD display segment dominated the market for the largest automotive digital cockpit market share and accounted for the largest revenue share of over 55 percent in 2020.
Frequent Updates: Frequent updates are an important part of maintenance and competitiveness. In how software is made, the automotive sector needs to be more forward-thinking than the mobile or computer sector. The lifespan of a car is much longer than that of any phone or computer, for example, 10-15 years. A car’s performance needs to keep up with changing temperatures and constant shaking conditions.
Price for users: Optimizing the boot times of large, complex generic software platforms is difficult and resource intensive. Optimization should not only be about booting the system as fast as possible, but also about meeting user expectations faster.
Biometrics: As mainstream safety becomes more and more personal, a change in this regard can also be expected in the field of car technology. Soon, using biometrics, we may have cars that are able to recognize gestures, heartbeats, retinal scans, brain waves, stress, fatigue and even eyelid movements.
The Right Software-Tech Combo: The ongoing transition to connected multi-function devices puts a selection of technologies at the center. Different functions set different requirements in terms of safety, security and performance criteria. Still, they all need to run on shared hardware. Choosing the right combination is essential as it affects all parts of software product development; Security, data ownership, performance and maintenance.
going forward
Tomorrow customers will have access to a range of features and functionalities that can be enabled with minimal or no physical intervention, and pay as they use them. The automotive sector is one of the strongest drivers of change, but one often wonders what’s next in terms of car technology.
From an analog car dashboard to a multi-screen, multi-modal digital experience – it’s a fast, moving journey. This transformation is being accelerated by the growing demand for digital user experiences along with high-performance computing platforms for automotive.