Cars have long since ceased to be just a simple means of transportation. Requirements for a modern cockpit have changed enormously over the past decade.
There is an ever-growing variety of information shared with the driver in the cockpits, especially on the displays.
“We are continuously working on new technologies that make our cars perfectly intuitive and user-friendly.” Regina Kaiser, Human Machine Interface Senior Engineer at Hyundai Motor Europe Technical Center
To date, Hyundai’s steering wheels and cockpits have undergone a major development process and the technology continues to evolve. But Hyundai is constantly working on future solutions to integrate the latest and upcoming communication features into its cars.
Major stages of cockpit development
Since 2015, there have been four significant project phases in the development of cockpits at Hyundai. An evaluation of Hyundai’s steering wheels and cockpits, as well as those of competitor cars, showed a broad variety and a substantial number of buttons. It became Hyundai’s target to reduce this number and to create a clean interface. The brand therefore opted to replace the rocker switches with two touch panels to make its steering wheels more intuitive.
In a project phase in 2016, Hyundai went a step further by replacing all hard keys with touchpads. This new development led to increased clarity and flexibility. The 2017 development phase even brought flexibility to a new level by making the cockpit easily customisable for users. Hyundai then replaced the touchpads of the 2016 model with two displays.
In 2018, Hyundai focused on improving the existing concept of touch displays with haptic feedback on the steering wheel. Hyundai consequently used the steering wheel of the i30 model.
“We chose the i30 to demonstrate that innovations are not limited to higher-segment vehicles. Hyundai intends to prove that innovations need to be achievable for a broad customer base.” Regina Kaiser
The steering wheel is equipped with two displays which have been increased in size and ergonomically adjusted. In order to respond ideally to the needs of each driver, the buttons can be adapted to the individual wishes of the operator. The displays come with a new, freely configurable icon design for easier understanding and two actuator modules underneath the surface allowing for a stronger and more consistent haptic feedback which optimises the usability for the driver. Hyundai even advanced the centre display with the newly-developed haptic modules and implemented the interaction between the steering wheel, centre and multi-layer cluster display.
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SOURCE: Hyundai
