Toward the “Moving living room”
Fast Growing Pursuit of Comfort
Innovation of the in-vehicle environment through computerization
The fundamental function of vehicles is to transport people or things. While car manufacturers have met most of the consumer needs by improving upon the basic functionality, “vehicle amenity” has emerged as the next task to be tackled seriously in developing new vehicles. Many automobile manufacturers are sharpening their edge of technologies aiming to realize a “Moving living room”. Vehicle amenity covers a wide range of fields such as cruising performance, air-conditioning, in-vehicle entertainment, and computerization. Throughout these diverse fields, electronic technologies are intensively utilized.
Many see a car navigation system as a major amenity system that uses an electronic system. The reason behind this is a car navigation system equipped with large screen LCD display and high-performance CPU can be a platform for various applications. The route guidance as a basic function of car navigation systems has increased the level of drivers’ comfort by making drivers free from a troublesome process to find an optimal route to a destination. Recent car navigation systems include various functions to improve the amenity of a vehicle, particularly to boost entertainment values.
The pioneer of such a trend is a TV function. Recently, the emergence of terrestrial digital broadcasting receivers has greatly enhanced performance and image quality. At the beginning, one segment broadcasting receiver for movable bodies such as cellular phones or automobile telephones was a mainstream, but recently, products with TV function equal to a home TV receiver, so called as a full-segment broadcasting receiver, have been introduced into market. In such car navigation systems, images of far better quality are available. Many in-vehicle equipment manufacturers predict an increase of the consumer needs to view TV and DVD images by installing monitor screens since high quality TV broadcasting became available in vehicle.
Fast spread of computerization centering on display
Fig-1. Example of driving information by telematics (Nissan Motor’s “Car Wings”)
Telematics service has come into the spotlight with the popularity of car navigation system (See Fig-1). This service provides vehicles with various types of information by movable body telecommunication system as used in cellular phones. This is also one of the functions to create amenity in vehicles. Several companies including automakers have started Telematics and been offering various types of services including destination information, news and e-mail services. Telematics approach is taking a similar course as with the development of the PC (personal computer), which was at first used as a standalone device and later transformed into the home information center through internet connection. So, there are expectations that car navigation system will develop into be the information center in a vehicle with connection to the network outside the vehicle.
User interface as a focal point
Fig-2. Images on LCD display on dashboard
Making various information available by switching a screen
The amount of information for drivers and passengers to assimilate is expected to surge with the spread of vehicle information services, such as Telematics. However, there is a major challenge in that process, a user interface connecting equipment and user. Drivers have to focus their eyes and hands on safe vehicle navigation. Operation of the interface will be compromised for the sake of safety driving. As the solution to this problem, some suppliers started to introduce voice recognition and voice synthesis technologies. These technologies will make more resources available for drivers than manual interfaces.
Displays bear an important role in realizing a new user interface. A large volume of diverse information can be offered to drivers by way of movies and images. Actually, some vehicles already have a flat panel display or LCD panel on the dashboard. By replacing the instruments on dashboards that drivers mostly look at with an LCD display, drivers can get more information. For example, if the entire instrument cluster is replaced with a LCD display, a wider variety of information can be available (See Fig-2). In regular drive, LCD panel displays meters to show vehicle speed or the number of engine revolutions. The LCD could show a car navigation system by switching a screen. At the parking lot, the LCD display may show an image taken by video camera that is installed at the back of the vehicle. When such a dashboard becomes widely used, the relationship between driver and vehicle may be changed dramatically.
Electronics contribute to the improvement of riding comfort
It is not just information that improves the level of comfort in vehicle. It is also important to improve the in-vehicle environment. A variety of electronic technologies can be applied for the improvement. An intelligent air conditioner (AC) is one example that realizes a comfortable driving condition. Some vehicles have an AC system that can be adjusted to each individual even when several people are inside the vehicle. A key to realize this kind of intelligent AC system is sensor technology that can capture accurate location of each individual in the vehicle.
Following the application of LEDs to headlights, some companies are trying to utilize LEDs as inner lights in the vehicle. LEDs can not only contribute to energy saving by reducing electric power consumption, but also improve the in-vehicle environment by increasing the adjustability of illumination. Application of LEDs gives more flexibility in design and selection of the color of lights. In addition, some device makers are making efforts to develop a system to suppress electrostatic discharge that gives discomfort to a driver or passengers. In this system, an ion generator removes static charge from human body, and reduces electrostatic discharges that may occur when people touch parts of a vehicle such as doors.
