Smart cockpit, a battleground for smart cars

Smart voice assistants, AR-HUD, streaming media rearview mirrors, digital LCD instrument displays... With the development of automotive intelligent technology, more and more functions not related to travel are appearing in cars. Cars have also gradually transformed from travel auxiliary tools to smart hardware devices that integrate music, movie watching, and interaction.

As a branch product of the development of automobile intelligence, the smart cockpit has become an important consideration in the current stage of automobile research and development, manufacturing, and publicity. The screen is larger and more, the physical buttons are getting fewer and fewer, and the smart cockpit mode with voice interaction as the main interaction method is gradually becoming unified. Compared with the characteristics of autonomous driving technology that has too high safety requirements and is too difficult to implement, the smart cockpit is undoubtedly a major feature of the current stage of automobile technology development that can directly touch consumers and bring consumers an intuitive experience. The smart cockpit has become a battleground in the development of automobile intelligence.

Unlike the mechanical and electrical eras of automobiles, smart cockpits will become an important product in the development of automobile intelligence. Stronger interactivity, better experience, and higher playability will become the most representative characteristics of smart cockpits. With the emergence of advanced driver assistance systems, drivers will gradually be freed from the requirement to observe traffic conditions during travel. With the liberation of their hands and attention, drivers will have more time to engage in entertainment or work to fill the free time during travel. As more and more time is available in the car, the time in the car will become the "third living space" like home and office, and the smart cockpit will have an increasingly broad business prospect.

The development of smart cockpits is a bit like the development of mobile phones. At the beginning, the core function of mobile phones was to make calls and communicate. Later, hardware changes such as smart voice assistants, large screen displays, and touch operations gradually emerged. As a result, various APP functions such as WeChat, Weibo, and Douyin were also loaded on mobile phones due to hardware upgrades. At the beginning, the cockpit was just a place to provide space for drivers and passengers. At this time, the car only served as a travel carrier, and the cockpit product was just a simple combination instrument to provide the driver with basic information such as the vehicle's engine speed and coolant temperature.

With the continuous enrichment of material and spiritual life, functions such as radio and CD have been popularized in the cockpit. People can use radio and CD to kill boring travel time. At this time, the cockpit has entertainment functions, but the operation is mainly achieved through physical buttons.

The development of Internet-connected technology has brought up the concept of smart cockpits. As a car entertainment system, it does not require high safety, so it has become a very easy-to-implement function and has become an important part of smart cars. However, at this stage, smart cockpit products still use distributed discrete control, that is, the operating systems are independent of each other. With the increase in the performance of chips , algorithms, etc., cockpit products will be further upgraded, and technologies such as one chip with multiple screens and multi-screen interaction will become popular.

Smart cockpit, sensory first

At this stage, when it comes to smart cockpits, the first impression may be the big screen. The big screen has become synonymous with "sense of technology + intelligence". New car-making forces represented by Wei, Xiaoli and Li Auto have used the big screen to an unparalleled extent. The recently launched Ideal L9 not only uses a 15.7-inch OLED screen on the central control screen and the co-pilot entertainment screen, but also has a 15.7-inch screen on the roof and even an interactive screen on the steering wheel, making the entire cockpit full of "screens". Mercedes-Benz, as a traditional car company, also put a 1.41-meter-long Dalian screen in the EQS.

The emergence of large screens has given enough visual impact, but the emergence of large screens also means the disappearance of physical buttons. Many operations such as turning on and off the air conditioner, music, map navigation, etc. are completed by touching the large screen. In addition, other interactive methods have also been derived, among which the most representative is voice interaction. Similar to the voice interaction on mobile phones, drivers and passengers can use keywords to call up voice assistants, and use voice assistants to complete a series of operations such as turning on and off the air conditioner, music, map navigation, and even making phone calls. Voice interaction also saves drivers from the risk of distraction caused by touch operations, which can easily cause accidents, making the travel process safer.

Smart cockpit, interaction-oriented

The realization of smart cockpits is inseparable from the rise of Internet technology. The core of smart cockpits is intelligence, which requires the support of Internet technology. Different from the era of radio and CD, the current smart cockpit mainly assists the driver based on interaction. Accurate and timely feedback of driver or passenger needs is the basic requirement of smart cockpits.

The realization of the smart cockpit is more based on the upgrade of software technology, which makes the concept of "software-defined car" more and more popular. Many Internet companies have also seen the blue ocean of smart cockpit and started to lay out. Many mobile phone companies have also played their advantages accumulated over many years in the software industry. Among them, the more representative is Huawei's HarmonyOS smart cockpit. Huawei HarmonyOS smart cockpit was released at Huawei's winter flagship new product launch conference on December 23, 2021, and used on its AITO brand. In addition, Huawei also enables the interconnection between mobile phones and car smart cockpits. Through the HarmonyOS system, seamless cross-device flow of services is achieved. For example, navigation tasks on mobile phones can be automatically transferred to the central control screen of the smart cockpit, making the interaction between hardware devices stronger and making travel more technological.

Smart cockpit, technological advancement

The main task of the development of smart cockpits is to provide drivers and passengers with more interactive experiences. For example, the installation of a large screen allows drivers to arrange virtual buttons such as air conditioning, music, and navigation according to their driving habits, so that they can operate faster when in use. Vehicle information such as speed and rotation speed can also be arranged in different forms according to needs, so that drivers can understand vehicle information faster. In addition, the display method and color can also be changed, so that drivers have a better driving experience during driving.

The current development of smart cockpits is still based on assisting drivers in driving, which can reduce the driver's attention and enable the operation of the entertainment system in a simpler way. The design logic behind it is still safety-oriented. With the continuous development of autonomous driving, the design logic of smart cockpits will also change. When autonomous driving develops to level L5, the role of the driver will no longer be needed. At this time, the smart cockpit will develop in the direction of entertainment. How to allow passengers to have more entertainment methods when riding in self-driving cars will be an important consideration in the design of smart cockpits. By then, virtual scene layout, immersive gaming experience, personalized smart cockpit presentation, etc. will become the main forms of expression of smart cockpits. At this time, self-driving cars will become smart hardware devices similar to mobile phones.

As an important part of smart cars and a relatively simple function to implement, the smart cockpit has become a core area for differentiated competition among major OEMs. It is also a more intuitive manifestation of Internet companies entering the field of smart cars. The smart cockpit is in a period of rapid market growth. With the improvement of the intelligence of cars, the smart cockpit will also move from passive interaction initiated by people to active interaction initiated by vehicles. The smart cockpit will be able to change the environment of the smart cockpit according to the driving status of the driver or passenger, actively carry out activities with the driver or passenger, and change the travel status of the vehicle when necessary.

As an important part of the development of smart cars, more and more companies will enter the smart cockpit. As a function that can provide the most intuitive experience for drivers and passengers, and as a key function for external publicity by various car companies, the smart cockpit will surely become a battleground for smart cars!