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Hyundai is working on what it calls the 'Cockpit of the Future' which will feature bigger digital displays and a steering wheel with its own touch-screen controls. The Korean car maker has been working on this idea since way back in 2015, but has now actually equipped a physical vehicle with the system to test it out.
It works like this - the main display in front of the driver uses two screens, layered one on top of the other, 6mm apart. This allows the display to create a 3D effect, which means that less important information can be pushed into the background, while more vital data can be brought to the front. Hyundai reckons that this layout, which can even create the effect of displays 'floating' in space can attract the driver's notice without causing unnecessary distraction.
To further help the driver use the system, the steering wheel has been redesigned with two touch-sensitive pads. These have haptic feedback, so that you can feel when you're 'pressing' the virtual buttons, and their layout can be altered depending on which menu functions of the instrument display or infotainment screen you're using, or which can be moved around and customised according to the driver's taste. Five different 'buttons' can be displayed on each touchpad.
Hyundai being Hyundai, this tech hasn't been fitted to some futuristic concept, nor a high-end Genesis model, but to a humble i30 hatchback. "We are continuously working on new technologies that make our cars perfectly intuitive and user-friendly", says Regina Kaiser, Human Machine Interface Senior Engineer at Hyundai Motor Europe Technical Center. "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."
Significantly, the layout does seem to offer improvements in driver distraction. Hyundai has had the setup tested at the Würzburg Institute for Traffic Science (WIVW) in Germany, and the result was that: "The new cockpit is significantly below the limits of the globally acknowledged motor vehicle safety associations AAM and NHTSA. Even for the more complex use cases, all test persons indicated only a slight distraction, which was perceived by them as noticeable but not as strenuous or interfering with the driving task."
"We are doing research on the learnability, intuition and potential driver distraction of the virtual cockpit," said Regina Kaiser.
Right now, the cabin layout is still very much a prototype and is not yet fully developed, but you can expect to see something similar used in future Hyundai models.