HMI Trends in Europe - Balancing Functionality with Safety
Report
With increasing numbers of vehicle systems giving drivers access to more complex information and entertainment options, safe, effective and intuitive HMI solutions have become a vital part of vehicle design.
New European telematics & ITS report from SBD
'HMI Trends in Europe: balancing functionality with safety' presents and future HMI challenges, trends and technologies assessed.
-HMI strategies of 16 leading vehicle manufacturers detailed and appraised
-Informed recommendations on the most effective solutions
Consumer demand for sophisticated infotainment systems has forced vehicle manufacturers to increase the availability in their model ranges of features such as satellite navigation, integrated telephones and multi-function audio equipment.
Although these features in themselves can make journeys more pleasurable and time-efficient, the design of their human-machine interface (HMI) presents a challenge in balancing ease of use with safety.
SBD's new telematics and ITS report, HMI Trends in Europe - balancing functionality with safety, shows how vehicle manufacturers have adopted a driver-focused HMI for their embedded systems, clustering the controls on and around the steering wheel and duplicating information in the instrument cluster display.
While this supports ease of use, it can also present an increased risk of driver distraction and compromise safety.
The report looks in detail at both generic and specific approaches to HMI design, detailing current trends in central controllers and touch screens and looking ahead to future technology, such as gesture recognition and dual-screen displays.
The HMI strategies deployed by 16 of Europe's leading car manufacturers are also illustrated and appraised.
In its research, SBD identifies those HMI solutions which have the greatest impact on safety, such as the head-up display systems pioneered in Europe by BMW and Citroën, and the wider availability of voice recognition control, a technology which is moving beyond the premium car market to feature in more high-volume models.
It cautions, however, that achieving the right balance between the functionality motorists expect and safety will become increasingly difficult and that none of the present or future HMI strategies will achieve significant improvements.
It recommends the development of workload management systems, which restrict the information provided to the driver and the functions that can be accessed, according to driving conditions, as offering the best potential.
While manufacturers can focus on the HMI of their embedded systems, SBD acknowledges the limited scope they have to ensure safe driver operation of portable devices, such as telephones and digital music players.
These issues together with the technical integration challenges are fully explored in SBD's recent report entitled "Portable device integration ~ strategies for the automotive industry".
With increasing numbers of vehicle systems giving drivers access to more complex information and entertainment options, safe, effective and intuitive HMI solutions have become a vital part of vehicle design.