Screenification Steals the Show at the Annual Consumer Electronics Geek-Fest

Automologist MAC will soon have nowhere to go to unplug.  

The annual Las Vegas Consumer Electronic Fair (aka CES) has once again been and gone, and once again I was not lucky enough to attend the annual geek-fest that showcases the future of electronic gadgetry.

Most years, the geek-fest is festooned with flying cars and autonomous designs and electric vehicles, and for sure there were plenty of these on show. But carmakers and their suppliers this year seemed to be a lot more focused on the cockpit of the vehicle as they showcased their vision of some interior innovations that are due to make their way to a showroom near you sometime soon.

What was obvious and, in a way, not so surprising was that screenification will proliferate with wild abandon. The new VW ID.7 will have a 38cm screen with touch sliders but Peugeot is going in a different direction, with the installation of a screen in their Hypersquare control system, which is kinda cool-looking. This square steering wheel, which they call the human-machine interface (HMI), displays information on its tablet-like surface.

Peugeot Human-Machine Interface—a bit like calling a spade a manual earth inversion unit.

Stellantis chose to showcase their RAM 1500 Battery Electric Vehicle, which features a two-screen approach, with the lower portion capable of being detached and used in other areas of the vehicle.

Continental unveiled their brand new In2visible HMI (where do they get these names?) which is a massive 1.3-metre screen that seems to wrap across the entire dashboard and is described as a system that the driver can fully immerse themselves in. Apparently, the screen can transform the car into a living room on wheels and here is the thing, Continental will offer this in their cars from 2025.

And here I was thinking that we need to concentrate on the road…

Afeela, a collaboration between Honda and Sony, showed off a concept car with a similar pillar-to-pillar screen that allows passengers in the back to view a different screen on which they can play games. So, another place where my kids will ignore me in the future. Again, this is set for production in 2025.

NVIDIA unveiled their latest cloud gaming service, which uses a low-latency streaming technology enabling a full pc-gaming experience for gaming on the move.

https://youtu.be/sNQVdvZStLM

Hyundai, Kia, Genesis, BYD and Polestar are all going to offer the technology inside their cars starting next year, with the promise of being able to import your own gaming library and bring your in-vehicle infotainment experience to new heights; well, at least according to Ali Kani, VP for Nvidia Automotive.

Not everyone agrees that screenification is the way to go. BMW is amongst those that are going screen-free in what they describe as a digital emotional experience or I Vision Dee. This is basically a head-up display (HUD) that projects onto the full width of the windscreen equipped with augmented reality functions.

Apparently available in about 12 months’ time.

Harman, that venerable automotive supplier now owned by Samsung, is also gambling on a HUD approach called Ready Vision. This system displays turn-by-turn directions on the windscreen and is also equipped to deliver collision alerts, amongst other things. Harman states that their aim is to enhance safety whilst cultivating transformative in-cabin experiences.

Armin Prommersberger, Senior VP of Product Management, would have us believe that Ready Vision will solve a number of industry problems by allowing driver to better understand the environment they are driving in whilst allowing for the driver to concentrate on the road.

So, we are going to either have loads more screens in our cars or none at all. For me, my car will be forever a place where I can seek refuge from the digital world; well, except for my sat-nav and iTunes and Spotify and my hands-free phone and my…