Tesla’s operating system for the Model S employs a computerised centre console.
All-electronic instruments are the perfect complement to an all-electric car, such as the Tesla Model S. The American saloon’s digital cluster is customisable, allowing the areas to the left and right of the main dial to be programmed independently. For instance, you could choose to have the left side of the screen occupied by the energy consumption graph, while the right portion shows your media playlist.
Even cooler than that is the Tesla’s colossal 17-inch touchscreen on the centre console – the biggest in any production car today. Using this oversized vehicular “tablet”, the driver can operate all the key features such as climate control, navigation (complete with Google Maps), opening/closing of the panoramic roof and adjusting the air suspension’s ride height. Tesla’s “digital native” interface is more user-friendly than a mind-boggling array of switches, and it’s funky, too.
Dashboard funkiness has reached a new level with the latest Audi TT. The German coupe has a so-called virtual cockpit that integrates the driving instrumentation and infotainment into a 12.3-inch, high-res multi-function panel. It provides different configurations – the default display parks the speedo and tacho in the foreground, the navigation display “shrinks” said meters and shows a large map, while the “sporty” display (only in the TTS model) is dominated by a rev counter. According to Audi, the animations are attractive and the graphics are neat.
Jaguar Land Rover is going beyond “magic meters” and exploring automotive applications for augmented reality.
Sometimes, digitisation is a necessity rather than a nicety, as was the case with the Lexus LFA. The amazing 4.8-litre V10 of the Japanese supercar revs from idle to a stratospheric 9000rpm in just 0.6 of a second, or about two blinks of an eye, so a “simulator” tachometer is the only way to indicate accurately the LFA’s engine revolutions per minute (rpm). Given how quickly the virtual needle swings clockwise in concert with the epic powerplant, a conventional pointer would fail to keep up, or possibly bend under pressure.
The development of innovative instrumentation continues apace. For instance, Land Rover has just revealed its Transparent Bonnet virtual imaging concept, which uses cameras mounted on the front grille to create an augmented-reality view of the terrain ahead and underneath, thereby enabling the driver to “see through” the bonnet and engine bay on his head-up display. This “X-ray vision” will be useful in a 4×4 SUV that is expected to climb rocks and whatnot off the beaten track.
So, digital dashboards look good and work great, but they make analogue instrument clusters seem archaic.
Head-up displays of the future may feature augmented reality.
Click here to read how your car’s fuel gauge works.
