OEMs are beginning to integrate new high-tech human machine interface (HMI) systems in place of traditional controls. Warning lights, hard push buttons and rotary controls are gradually being overtaken by multi-modal input methods such as touch screen, haptic feedback, gesture and voice control.
The trend has been initiated by growing demand within the luxury segment and is expected to sweep across most vehicle segments in the coming years. According to a recent report released by Grand View Research, the global HMI market is expected to register a CAGR exceeding 10% up to 2022, reaching US$6.31bn. Most recently, the new BMW 7 Series was launched with optional gesture control, allowing functions such as heating and music to be adjusted with pre-programmed hand motions.
However, will these new HMI systems become the new norm for driver information? Georg Doll, Managing Director of software development company Luxoft, thinks they will. “However, I don’t think we will immediately see features like gesture control as standard”, he advises.
Key for survival
Doll points to varying cultural nuances that will need to be addressed by the industry. HMI systems need to be – ideally – usable across various countries and languages without a significant overhaul of the system. With push and turn buttons and knobs, there is very little that needs to be adapted by the OEM, but when the decision-making process is controlled by the driver’s expression – be it through speech or gesture – there are challenges to overcome.
“If you look at cultural differences, it can be confusing going from one car in Germany to another in the UK, for example. It’s easy to activate the wiper instead of the indicator by mistake. The behaviour of the driver and the input methods we use – such as what ‘yes’ means, what ‘no’ means – and how you show this with a gesture may differ from region to region,” he observes.
Luxoft has been a player within the automotive space for the last decade, with a focus on HMI development – an area that has become increasingly lucrative for the company. “We keep increasing our investments, and firmly believe that this software is going to be key for survival in the automotive industry,” Doll explains.
Indeed, the company recently received awards for its HMI development at the CAR HMi Concepts and Systems 2015 Congress in July 2015. In the Most Innovative Human Machine Interface (HMI) Feature category, Luxoft took second place after Continental and ahead of Ford in third.
The award was received for its Body Comfort Climate feature, which allows driver or passenger to interact with the vehicle’s climate control system. Energy-efficient climate control systems can be designed by employing zonal climate control targeted to specific body parts of a passenger.
Seeing clearly
The topic of HMI ties in closely with autonomous driving, as the smorgasbord of sensors required to make driverless vehicles a reality can relay various alerts to the driver.
HMI systems can alert the driver to road hazards more effectively than traditional warnings – such as lights or audible chimes – by displaying vital driver information more clearly, and enabling the driver to react more efficiently. “With semi-autonomous driving there are completely new tasks for the HMI system, such as keeping the driver alert and informing the driver of special situations. Arriving at fully autonomous driving will require even more new requirements,” explains Doll.
Today, many premium vehicles can evaluate potentially hazardous movements of nearby traffic and determine which information is brought to the driver’s attention. This ‘workload determination’ can be used to assist drivers in a critical situation, Doll explains. “The HMI can display exactly what they need at that point. Historically, we are hunters. That means when it comes to a critical situation, we tend to only focus on one point.” ADAS paired with HMI can significantly help drivers by placing their attention on the correct situation, and therefore lead to the most efficient or the safest action.
The industry appears to be targeting 2020 for the first commercially available autonomous drive technology, but how does the timeline look for the crossover to smart HMI systems? “The technology is just deploying now,” says Doll, “and you can see the first gesture control systems in new vehicles today.” However, he observes that as with autonomous driving, while the HMI technology may be nearly ready, public roads are not. This is for local government to decide, he says: “Standardisation is something that regulatory bodies are going to need to take care of, and that does not happen overnight.”
For the many
One of the challenges facing Luxoft and other developers of HMI systems is bringing a solution to market that meets the needs of both exclusive marques and mass-produced models. Bringing these systems to market in India, for example, would present particular challenges. With a high volume of compact and three-wheeler vehicles and a growing premium sector, the middle market is yet to flourish.
How drivers interact with their cars will continue to evolve with each new model hitting the market. Suppliers will look to develop increasingly sophisticated HMI platforms that can be shared across an OEM’s entire model range, customised to suit branding requirements, and efficiently relay growing levels of information for the driver.
“The driver of technology within the automotive industry is in the premium sector. In the volume market today, you take existing functionality, apply a classic cost-down exercise for the system functions, and then deploy the resulting system in cars which have technology that has already returned an investment. As a result, the cost of the HMI functionality is relatively small,” Doll explains. “On the software side, if an OEM can get volume into emerging markets, that might be a game changer.”
