Physical buttons and touch screens are cancelled. Will the ultimate form of smart cars be "screenless"?

Will cars become consumer electronics?

As intelligence becomes the key point in the second half of the competition for new energy vehicles , the answer to this question will become increasingly clear.

As early as November 2021, Cui Dongshu, secretary-general of the China Passenger Car Association, posted on the WeChat public account that new energy vehicles are completely different from traditional fuel vehicles. The former are consumer electronic products. The service life of the two is completely different. New energy vehicles iterate faster. Therefore, the value retention rate of new energy vehicles should not be regarded as a key indicator. Instead, its technological development, cost reduction, and price reduction should be regarded as the core indicators.

According to Cui Dongshu’s idea, when buying new energy vehicles at the current stage, consumers will pay for the rapidly improving electronic consumer products. When consumers regard new energy vehicles as electronic consumer products, they will not care so much about the value retention rate. , but pays more attention to the various driving pleasures and experiences brought to it by this novel sense of high technology.

In this regard, Lei Jun, founder of Xiaomi Motors, has expressed the same view. He believes: "The essence of the automotive industry will evolve from machinery to consumer electronics."

When cars were still in the mechanical stage, everyone viewed cars as transportation tools, and the quality of the “three major parts” would determine consumers’ willingness to purchase. However, with the advent of the era of automobile electrification and intelligence, people have higher and higher requirements for automobiles. Configurations such as vehicle-machine systems that affect the user experience have gradually become the focus of many people's attention. Under the two thrusts of consumption upgrading and market driving, the electronicization of automobiles has become more obvious, and the emergence of automobile electronic products has made the trend of automobiles developing towards consumer electronics products even more obvious.

The above point of view is not unreasonable. Today's development path of new energy smart cars is similar to that of previous smartphones.

Throughout the "evolutionary" history of computers and mobile phones, we can find that the service performance of products is more reflected in the level of human-computer interaction, and the ultimate goal of human-computer interaction is to personify machines, and machines have moved from passive response to active interaction. , which makes the originally cold machinery warm, giving users a sense of physical and psychological dependence on it.

In the field of new energy smart vehicles, the development of smart cockpits has a similar process. With the advancement of electronic technology and the expectations of car owners, there are more and more electronic signals and functions inside and outside the car. As a result, the car interaction method has also changed, gradually moving from "physical knobs/keyboards, digital touch screens, and language control to natural state interaction." .

Will physical buttons disappear?

Physical buttons are a relatively primitive way for people to interact with cars. Today, discussions within the industry have never stopped on whether to cancel physical buttons in cars. This is mainly because touch screens are now becoming popular among new energy smart cars and are very popular with car companies.

What must be mentioned here is Tesla, which focuses on high-end brands. Tesla has brought touch screens into cars. When the center console lined with many cumbersome physical buttons is replaced by a simple and technological touch screen, it really looks refreshing.

Subsequently, touch screens were connected to "high-end" and "smart" to a certain extent, and domestic and foreign car companies rushed to imitate them. It seems that there are not many large screens in the car and it does not dare to call itself a new energy smart car.

As Jidu's first "car robot", one of its highlights is its use of "simplification" to reflect the sense of technology. It is reported that ROBO-01 eliminates about 90% of traditional physical buttons in the entire vehicle, and door handles, shift levers, left and right levers, etc. also no longer exist. The vehicle's internal and external control is realized by a 3D integrated ultra-wide screen and the vehicle's human-computer interaction capabilities. 

Coincidentally, Mercedes-Benz EQS is equipped with a 1.4m special-shaped screen, HiPhiX's rotating central control screen, Zhiji L7 and Lantu Free's lifting screen, Roewe RX5's 27-inch sliding large screen, and Porsche Taycan also provides 4 screens Big screen.

As the wave of intelligence intensifies in the field of new energy vehicles, it seems that the physical buttons of the car have become synonymous with "obsolescence". But is this really the case?

In 2022, a well-known Swedish automotive media conducted an experiment, requiring the driver to continuously operate four functions at a driving speed of 100km/h: turn on the seat heating and increase the air conditioner by 2°C; turn on the radio and tune to the designated radio station; The subtotal mileage is reset to zero; the instrument brightness is adjusted to the darkest level and the central control screen is turned off.

The entire process is operated with fingers and does not involve the voice system. 

The result was that the touch screen was completely defeated. The best result was the Volvo V70 with all physical buttons. It only took 10 seconds to complete all functions and traveled 306 meters during this period. The worst result was the MG Marvel R, which has a 19.4-inch central control screen. The test time reached 44.9 seconds and the driving distance exceeded 1.3 kilometers.

As a result, many voices in the industry emerged: Is the elimination of physical buttons really for practicality, or is it simply to enhance the technological feel of the cockpit surface? Is the touch screen replacement of physical buttons just a "flashy" innovation?

On October 26, 2022, at the 2022 10th Automotive and Environmental Innovation Forum and the 14th Global Automotive Industry Summit hosted by NDE Automotive Group and Gasgoo, Valeo China Chief Technology Officer Gu Jianmin proposed: "Completely cancel the physical Buttons are not an inevitable trend. The company’s goal is not to cancel all physical buttons, but to seek a balance between cost, minimalist interior, technological sense, operational practicality and safety.”

Source: Gasgoo

At this point, physical buttons with practical functions are making a comeback. For example, Great Wall Motors announced that it will "add physical air-conditioning buttons to all new tank 300 series to bring users a better product experience"; Volkswagen decided to cancel the steering wheel touch button design on many of its models on sale and return to Traditional physical buttons are planned to be implemented from 2023. The first models equipped with physical buttons on the steering wheel will be the mid-term facelift golf.

The touch screen will also be gone?

At present, new energy smart cars cannot completely lose physical buttons, but what about touch screens?

According to previous reports from Gasgoo, BMW CEO Oliver Zipse believes that the current practice of automakers adding high-definition infotainment displays to car dashboards is actually a mistake and will distract drivers. However, Zipse believes this trend will be short-lived.

"Driver distraction is the main cause of accidents rather than speeding," Zipse said at CES 2023. Zipse "firmly believes" that distracting center console screens will soon be available. It will become history. "In 10 years, it will disappear. Regulators may not allow it to continue to exist."

Source: BMW

Former Apple design director Jony Ive, who served as Apple's car design consultant, also believes that the most obvious advantage of physical buttons is that they can enable blind operations by the driver. In contrast, the discussion about touch screens mainly revolves around "safety", which cannot satisfy the blind operation of the driver. Operational requirements increase the difficulty of operation.

Many car companies are aware of this problem. He Xiaopeng, the founder of Xpeng Motors, previously stated in an interview with the media that he is personally opposed to having multiple screens in the car. This is not only worthless, but will also affect the power consumption of the vehicle; NIO founder Li Bin also said at the end of 2021 NIO Day said: "A smart car actually does not need so many screens." 

From a product perspective, NIO and Xpeng Motors do not have that many screens in their cars. They are trying to introduce VR and large projection screens into their cars to add an intelligent experience to the cockpit. In addition, voice interaction is also particularly favored by car companies.

According to the Gasgoo Automotive Research Institute's "Vehicle Voice Interaction Industry Report (2022 Edition)" , with the development of intelligent emotional cars, the penetration rate of the vehicle voice interaction industry will reach 73.3% from January to August 2022, and voice interaction has become a standard feature of smart cars. With the deepening of intelligent network connection, voice interaction, as the main human-computer interaction solution in smart cockpits, can bring excellent user experience and has great market development prospects.

The report shows that judging from the overall market price from January to August 2022, voice interaction is one of the most basic configurations of smart cars, and the best-selling models are concentrated in the mid- to low-end or luxury markets.

In addition, at the OEM level, Xpeng's voice interaction system is ahead of other car companies with its full-scenario voice coverage and 120-second continuous dialogue; NIO has taken a new approach and adopted the NOMI method to give the car the soul, but the core voice interaction function needs to be improved; Ideal Voice The interaction is in line with its product positioning and meets the needs of users when traveling at home. Traditional car companies use different suppliers to create differentiation in their cars. At present, traditional leading car companies have begun to develop their own voice interaction layout.