What Display Daily thinks: Mercedes-Benz is becoming a benchmark for modern automotive displays. While the Vision EQXX is a concept car that’s been kicking around for a year, it provides some interesting insights into the automotive industry, particularly for the display industry.
Firstly, most of the best in-car display concepts are in EVs. Most EVs have one singular goal: get more mileage. Mercedes is claiming to have achieved about 750 miles on one charge with the Vision EQXX because of various feats of engineering that it has applied to the design.
In pursuing the most economy in the cockpit of the car, Mercedes is also providing a blueprint of what could go into future mid-range and compact cars. A single pillar-to-pillar display is easy to install, has less connections, and if you have the right software, much easier to manage than multiple in car displays. It also makes for a cleaner design for the dashboard that opens up the interior cabin.
MiniLED displays are the sweet spot for automotive if these types of displays are going to find a place in all automobiles. They are not as cheap as LCD displays, but definitely cost less than OLED. While OLEDs may provide richer colors and faster response times, none of these are a real factor in a dashboard display. Brightness in direct sunlight, longevity, and a decent price-performance ratio is about all it takes. And, if you’re going to standardize on pillar-to-pillar displays then it may be your best option for the best of all worlds.
The 8K Pillar-to-Pillar Display Should be a Standard
The Mercedes-Benz Vision EQXX concept car’s 8K 47-inch MiniLED pillar-to-pillar dashboard is a game-changer. It’s not only that way because Mercedes also has the software infrastructure to support and run the giant display but it also has the engineering heritage to pull off the concept . The display itself is supplied by Continental, and there’s a lot to be said for why that company should be used as the standard-bearer for automotive displays more than any of the traditional display vendors. What the Vision EQXX display does do is send one on a trip through the very near future of automotive displays.
The future of automotive displays is being driven by EV vendors. They have the most to gain from the displays, not only adding user experiences and interfaces that are best suited to autonomous driving services, but also providing lower power consumption and lighter weights to the whole car design. The present is all luxury EV brands and very space-age-y designs. It’s par for the course with new technologies as everyone preens and poses with their ideations before getting down to business. And that business is to get digital displays into all cars, mid-range and compacts too, and not just an elite group of products.
Continental has been talking about the single console display for some time. But, it is about more than design, it’s about how cars are becoming more computerized, with more sensors, more functions, more integration, and more actionable information. The pillar-to-pillar dash makes total sense when you consider how much information is going to get thrown around the interior of a car, from external cameras, instrumentation, and proximity sensors to infotainment and cabin controls. The centralization of computing in cars is centralizing the display.
Centralizing the Computing, Centralizing the Display
Traditionally, vehicles have been designed with numerous individual electronic control units (ECUs) that each handle specific tasks. For instance, there might be separate ECUs for the engine, transmission, airbags, anti-lock brakes, infotainment system, and so forth.
However, as vehicles have incorporated more advanced features, especially with the advent of connected, autonomous, shared, and electric (CASE) vehicles, the number of ECUs in a car has multiplied. This has led to increased complexity, weight, wiring, and potential for system inefficiencies. Instead of having numerous independent ECUs, a domain control unit (DCU) consolidates several functionalities into one centralized control unit. For example, instead of having separate ECUs for the engine, transmission, and cruise control, there might be one DCU for all powertrain-related functions. Similarly, there might be another DCU for all infotainment and connectivity-related tasks.
The advantages of this approach include reduced complexity, as fewer individual control units mean reduced wiring, which can lead to weight savings and less complexity in vehicle design. Furthermore, centralizing control can lead to faster data processing, which is essential for advanced features, especially in autonomous vehicles where real-time processing is crucial. It might also be easier to update software or fix issues across various systems with functionalities centralized.
However, the move to DCUs isn’t without challenges. As functionalities get centralized, the DCU becomes a more critical point of potential failure. The design, therefore, needs to ensure high reliability and redundancy. Looking ahead, with the push towards more autonomous and connected vehicles, the trend is towards an even more centralized vehicle computer system, where an even higher level of centralization might occur, with only a few super-powerful computers handling most of the vehicle’s functionalities.
That doesn’t mean that automotive displays have to be restricted to one format but there are a number of reasons to believe that a pillar-to-pillar display is the best use of a car manufacturer’s resources.
We can start with the software and the extent of information that now becomes central to a car’s functions. It’s probably a lot simpler to design an operating system and set of software services or apps to appear across one display, no matter how you dice up application windows, then to try and anticipate and support multiple display configurations.
This isn’t a multi-display setup like you get on your desktop. Every display’s functions, user experience, and interface would have to align with a custom configuration for each car model. With a single display, you’re looking at something more straightforward to plan for, one form factor with multiple screen sizes and resolutions, and a reduction in customization overhead. And no user is going to read the manual on how to manage in-car displays so, car makers have to think about how they design for a user who should have instant familiarity with all of the functions in their model, and not have to be chasing down instructions on how to use multiple screens.
There’s also the fact that cars get built on assembly lines and you probably want one set of electronics connections, one dashboard panel mould, with less worries and concerns about seals and installation procedures. There’s less circuitry to manage, and there are fewer components to source.
If the software is right then a single pillar-to-pillar display is the best solution for managing the complexity of car electronics and information systems. That’s going to mean compromises somewhere, and it also means finding that middle ground for the display technology. Continental and Mercedes may have figure that out for everyone else.
