E-Mobility Engineering 016 l Aurora Powertrains eSled dossier l In Conversation: Thomas de Lange l Automated manufacturing focus l Torque sensing insight l Battery Show Europe 2022 report l Sodium batteries insight l User interfaces focus

He says the visual channel can often become overloaded and should be supported by a holistic HMI solution. For example, the navigation system should work mainly acoustically and not require the driver to look at the screen. HUDs and augmented reality Heads-up displays (HUDs) came from aviation, and are finding their way into more cars as options or premium features, showing symbology focused at infinity in the driver’s line of sight so that there is no need to look away from the road. The HMI expert notes that HUDs are best suited to showing manoeuvre and stabilisation information, including all primarily driving-related information such as speed, navigation, lane-keeping or distance-keeping instructions, as well as some EV- specific items. “An augmented reality HUD can be used to show exactly how the vehicle has to be parked in order to be able to charge it, for example,” he says. “Another EV-specific use could be the display showing the range remaining. The combination of range indication and navigation, for example in the HUD, is one of the most relevant pieces of information for EVs.” The HMI development platform provider agrees, adding that speed and navigation guidance, in that order, are the top priority items for a HUD, and he sees a lot of potential in augmented reality. “I expect that we will see annotations on buildings, on post offices for example, and street names so you don’t have to look at the signs, and even information about other cars in front and behind,” he says. “You might see above a car the speed it is travelling at. If you are coming up behind a car at 150 kph for example, and it is only doing 80 kph, the speed difference is additional information it makes sense to have.” Where it starts to become very exciting is when a HUD can receive information about hazards that the driver cannot see, he adds. “Say you are driving quickly in the Alps and there is an accident around the next corner. A HUD can show you what’s happening beyond that corner and advise you to slow down.” Input matters When it comes to the driver making inputs to the HMI, there are important decisions to be made about which functions are best accessed via dedicated controls, and which through icons and menus on screens. The HMI expert says that all safety- critical functions, such as hazard warning lights, must be operable via physical buttons. Furthermore, frequently used analogue infotainment functions should also be designed for physical operation. “This includes, for example, the volume control, which works more intuitively and precisely using a classic rotary control,” he says. “The seat adjustment and window opening/ closing work best with buttons as well.” The HMI development platform provider believes that the best way to give commands to the car while driving is vocally, despite still encountering complaints about such systems. He argues though that voice recognition technology has improved enormously since it was first introduced into mainstream cars nearly 20 years ago. After giving up on the system in a Volkswagen Tiguan 15 years ago because it didn’t understand him, he says he tried again every few years when he got a new car, with positive results. “Improvements in voice recognition are just breathtaking,” he says. “With Google Alexa and Apple Siri, most of the questions are understood even though they are listening to all sorts of questions. In a car you can condense it down to a few relevant commands, and the driver can learn how to approach a car with the right syntax and so on, so it is much easier to implement. “The mistake the industry made was to start rolling it out quickly at a time when the user experience wasn’t ready because the software wasn’t, and that is what a lot of people still have in their minds.” The HMI expert notes that new noise reduction algorithms eliminate nearly all background noise, and even disturbing side conversations can be filtered out with new microphone systems, while the limited number of voice commands has been replaced by natural language understanding, as used in voice assistants such as Alexa and Siri. He cautions though that it is still a challenge to integrate voice assistant systems into the car and to network them with other vehicle systems. “For example, the voice assistant must be networked with functions such as climate control or the infotainment system to be able to control them accordingly,” he says Enabling control of both cabin comfort and infotainment functions for front and back seat passengers as well as the driver is increasingly important for modern vehicle interfaces (Courtesy of Elektrobit) 70 Autumn 2022 | E-Mobility Engineering