In the era of smart cockpits, how can glass be made intelligent?

　　The increase in the amount of glass used per car is gradually becoming a major trend in the automotive industry. According to information from China Report Network, in the 1950s, the amount of glass used per car was about 2.2 square meters. In recent years, a car needs about 5 square meters of glass, almost twice as much as before.

　　If I remember correctly, the last time the glass industry prospered was when the smartphone era exploded. At that time, the stunning debut of the first generation of iPhone overturned people's perception of traditional mobile phones. So, is there such a similar role in the era of smart cars?

　　The emergence of Tesla, the “disruptor”

　　Before Tesla came along, the status of automobile "soft power" was not taken seriously by traditional car companies. In order to reduce the cost of design changes, they tacitly agreed with each other that the so-called large-screen in the car was still just a collection of entertainment functions designed to continue user interaction habits in the revision and upgrade for several years, and did not make significant progress.

　　But this is understandable. After all, for car companies at that time, they could make a lot of money just by updating products step by step, so they naturally had no motivation to change themselves. However, this "beautiful dream" began to collapse in the summer of 2009. That night, traditional car companies stayed awake all night.

　　I remember it was an episode of "The Late Show with David Letterman" in April. The Tesla Model S slowly "walked" to the stage with its 17-inch giant screen. At that time, facing this "special guest", talk show host David Letterman's classic laughter once again echoed throughout the live studio. However, this time his laughter was a little amazing.

　　There was a saying circulating in the Chinese crosstalk world, "Before Guo Degang appeared, we could all die peacefully through euthanasia. Once Guo Degang appeared, it became difficult for us to die well." Although the emergence of the "spoiler" Tesla is not so exaggerated, traditional car companies must be looking unhappy.

　　After that, Tesla Model S was officially launched and delivered in 2012, and entered the domestic market in 2014. Later, Tesla Model X, Model 3, and Model Y came into people's sight one after another. Today, Tesla, which has experienced crises such as capacity expansion, executive departure, and privatization turmoil, has grown into the world's hottest electric car company under the leadership of Musk.

　　Now, more and more people regard Tesla as the iPhone of the automotive industry, not only because its central control screen is large and can be operated like a smartphone, but also because Tesla has fundamentally subverted the traditional car-making concept. Its 17-inch central control screen breaks the collection of entertainment functions and completes the "intelligent" transformation of all devices in the car.

　　It has to be said that just like the first generation of iPhone attracted countless imitators after its launch, Tesla Model S has also led a wave of large-screen car computers. For example, Mercedes-Benz uses a through-type dual-LCD central control instrument screen design, Audi's latest dual-LCD screen design under the MMI operating system, and the Land Rover Range Rover Velar's three-screen interconnection design.

　　Of course, the large screen of Tesla Model S has also inspired new domestic car manufacturers, the most typical example of which is Xiaopeng Motors. The Xiaopeng G3 launched in 2018 is equipped with a 15.6-inch vertical screen that looks very much like the Tesla Model S of that year. Therefore, Xiaopeng Motors is also affectionately called "Tesla's Chinese disciple."

　　If you look at the current market, you can see more large central control screens in different forms, such as the 48-inch shared giant screen of Byton M-Byte, the multi-screen design of "driving screen + central screen + co-pilot screen + control screen" proposed by Ideal ONE, the five-screen interconnection of Skywell ME7, the folding screen of Aion LX and the curved screen of BMW iNEXT.

　　Back to the amount of glass used, in the "post-Tesla era", Byton's 48-inch shared giant screen increased the amount of glass used per vehicle by 0.3 square meters, and the five-screen interconnection of the Skywell ME7 increased the amount of glass used by about 0.4 square meters. It is not difficult to see that the large-screen car machine led by Tesla has increased the amount of glass used per vehicle.

　　But don’t forget that Tesla’s panoramic sunroof design also brings a lot of glass increment. It is estimated that the glass usage of Tesla Model 3 panoramic sunroof is about 0.7 square meters. It is worth mentioning that the panoramic sunroof design is gradually becoming the “standard configuration” of luxury cars, which means that more models will be equipped with this configuration.

　　In general, the twice as much glass usage per vehicle mentioned above is not only due to the fact that the vehicle models themselves have become larger and more diverse over the decades of development, but more importantly, it is inseparable from the changes brought about by Tesla.

　　Tier 1 Continent’s “Advance”

　　The trend of large-screen car computers led by Tesla has made in-car displays more numerous, larger, more diverse, and more dominant, which means that their display quality is becoming more and more important. As we know, Tesla Model 3 has cancelled the instrument panel and almost all physical buttons, and its interaction with users basically depends on the 15-inch central control display, so the imaging quality of this piece of glass has become unprecedented.

　　Not long ago, in order to solve the problem of easily visible edges between the display screen and the non-display part of the device, Tesla recently announced a patent called "Holographic decorative glass for screen color matching". Specifically, Tesla uses a colored frame and index matching glue to apply the vehicle screen.

　　Based on this technology, Tesla can ensure that people in the car can clearly see the screen at any viewing angle. It should be noted that because the color of the display may depend on the angle at which the viewer looks at the display, this problem will occur in all high-quality screens.

　　You may think that the cost of this technology is higher than the actual demand, but with the development of the intelligent network era, people will rely more and more on the central control screen, and the frequency of use will gradually increase. At that time, a color matching display with the best viewing angle will become particularly important.

　　If Tesla is concerned about the development of interior glass from the perspective of user experience, then Continental, as a Tier 1 supplier, sees the huge potential of glass that occupies a large area in the car in terms of digitalization. It is understood that the company's control solution for smart glass has taken shape.

　　In the vision of Continental, users will be able to adjust the brightness and temperature of the car windows through voice commands in the future. Specifically, users can adjust the brightness of the panoramic sunroof through voice commands to effectively block the sun, and can also intelligently adjust the brightness of the front windshield to increase driving safety. In addition, the windshield also has a partial tinting function to protect the privacy of rear passengers.

　　技术方面，智能玻璃控制技术采用一种特殊的玻璃薄膜技术，并根据电气控制信号改变其透明程度。大陆公司创新的地方在于其率先采用了液晶创新技术，这种技术适用于所有的车窗，可显著提高可切换控制玻璃的潜力。

　　More importantly, with this technology, users no longer have to reach for the sun visor while driving, and when users get close to the car in winter, the windows will automatically defrost, which is very user-friendly. It is worth mentioning that perhaps with the widespread use of smart glass, traditional parts such as sun visors and sunshades will also "go off" the car.

　　The future of smart surface technology

　　In fact, if Continental's smart glass control solution takes shape, then the future of turning car windows into smart displays with touch screen elements, which we can see on many concept cars, is not far away. By then, any piece of glass in the car will become a display with functions such as infotainment system, virtual assistant, cloud interaction, intelligent scene voice, gesture interaction, etc.

　　In Cheyun's view, there are three benefits of smart glass or smart surface technology:

　　First, space maximization: Smart glass can further reduce the number of physical buttons in the car, thereby better unifying the overall interior style and expanding space utilization.

　　Second, safety. As we mentioned above, smart glass can intelligently adjust the partial tinting display of the front windshield to ensure the user's driving safety. The reflective surface can also be turned into a transparent interactive control panel to reduce reflection and glare and improve safety.

　　Third, it is more intuitive. Compared with traditional designs, smart surfaces are smaller and lighter, providing the most intuitive experience.

　　Smart glass can be regarded as one of the most widely used smart surface technologies. In Cheyunjun's opinion, smart glass will become the central control center of other smart surface technologies in the future. You can imagine that we currently control the central control system indirectly through knobs and physical buttons, just like controlling similar functions through interior panels and handrails.

　　By the way, smart surface is a kind of surface decoration achieved through IMD, embedded sensors and other processes. This decoration can be textiles, leather, wood, metal, natural fiber composites, nano, bionic technology, bioplastics, 3D touch screens, etc. In fact, this technology is not far from us. On the Geely Geometry A sedan, this technology appears in the form of backlight sensitive touch function embedded in the center console surface.

　　More importantly, the intelligentization of glass will further promote the growth of glass usage per vehicle. In the future, large areas of intelligent glass can make the vehicle a customizable second space, providing personalized views according to user needs, such as home theater, leisure and entertainment, private office, etc. At this time, our interactive activities in the car are not just as simple as operating the central control screen and instrument panel. Any flat or curved surface in the car may provide us with services.