Here's What You Need To Know About Integrated Automotive Cockpit Systems

Over the past decade, the instrument clusters of cars have undergone a tremendous change. Traditional gauges has been replaced by screens that share vital information in an interactive and consolidated manner. These are part of the Integrated Automotive Cockpit Systems that are aimed at offering a clean design and easy operation, thus minimizing the distraction felt by the driver while trying to understand the many complicated pieces of information that are present on other such panels. Here´s a full overview of what such systems bring with them.

Features of Integrated Automotive Cockpit Systems

Such a cockpit system usually includes 5 main components:

1. Heads-up display: This is the main panel behind the steering wheel that shows vital information including the speedometer, the fuel reading, and more.
2. Infotainment system: Providing information and entertainment is the aim of this system, which is present in the form of a touchscreen display that allows you to do everything from controlling the music to accessing various functions of the car.
3. Navigation system: A vital part of cars these days is access to GPS navigation. This aspect is usually embedded into the infotainment system.
4. Smart HVAC controller: Car ACs these days are made smart by the HVAC (Heating, Ventilation, and Air Conditioning) system that uses sensors to gauge the temperature and change its settings automatically.
5. Smart voice assistants: Voice assistants like Siri and Google Assistant are a common part of Integrated Automotive Cockpit Systems for allowing drivers to perform various functions without being distracted from their driving.

Intelligent or Smart Cockpit System

Intelligent Cockpit Systems are all the rage in premium and luxury cars nowadays. An advanced version of the integrated cockpit display, an intelligent cockpit system goes beyond that to provide human-car interaction, intelligent interaction, intelligent scenarios and personalized services through a unified software and hardware platform.

Features like Advanced driver assist, autopilot, lane departure intervention and other safety features that improve driving safety which have now become common in premium and luxury cars are all supported by an intelligent cockpit system. These features can only properly function with the combined aid of software, satellite networks and internal hardware, which is what an intelligent cockpit system provides.

It seamlessly enables multiple sub-systems in the car, often in the form of multiple electronic control units (ECU) to provide cohesive information to the driver on a single display screen. This aids the driver in negotiating traffic safely and smoothly. Sometimes this also includes physical intervention by the car´s system like when a driver falls asleep at the wheel or when remote parking is enabled.

Entry of Tech Players In The Game

All these connected systems of the new age software-defined cars require the presence of a single operating system (OS) to seamlessly integrate them as well. Some carmakers like Tesla came up with their own OS in order to keep the data encrypted and private. And did so successfully. Volkswagen too invested a huge amount in the research and development of the VW.OS. Several Chinese automakers followed Tesla´s lead and developed their own.

But for the others, tech companies like Visteon, Aptiv, Neusoft and Desay SV have spawned intelligent cockpit platforms. Traditional electronics players like Continental, Panasonic, Bosch, Samsung and Huawei among others have also rolled out their new-generation intelligent cockpit platforms.

Visteon currently is an industry leader in this sector. Its SmartCore technology is used as a smart cockpit system by Mercedes, named MBUX. Similarly, in 2020, Land Rover unveiled the New Defender 90 and 110, the first ever vehicles to feature dual-modem, dual eSIM design for enhanced connectivity and functionality, which was powered by the Qualcomm Snapdragon S820Am Automotive Platform with the integrated Snapdragon X12 LTE Modem. The New Defender is also the first Land Rover vehicle to include a domain controller that consolidates a number of Advanced Driver Assistance Systems (ADAS) and driver convenience functions.

Future competition, undoubtedly lies in smart cockpit systems and that puts tech players or system integrators at the helm in the automotive industry in the years to come.