Help me shape the future for offroad enthusiasts for the future connected car
#11
JK Junkie
<snip> Thanks for the suggestions. I appreciate the comments about buttons and screen locations. Most of that will be left up to the OEMs to decide. The benefit of a touch screen is having it software driven, the button becomes smarter and customizable. While I appreciate dedicated buttons, they are a thing of the past. </snip>
Software buttons are great, but on-off, volume, and even radio channel presets -- Stuff that gets frequent use, are much better in hardware that doesn't move, change, and can be quickly operated with just a glance or even blind. There's to much tendency toward distraction these days.
A perfect example is a neighbor I know who missed a slight curve, drove into a ditch, and hit a fence while fiddling with the car's fancy radio. Sounds dumb, and we all tend to blame the operator, but user interfaces can be a big contributor to accidents in cars, power plants, aircraft, etc. It's especially true when people transition from 1970's interfaces that could be used practically blind to something like a touch screen that takes more attention -- It's really a step backwards ergonomically sometimes.
Last edited by Mr.T; 06-22-2020 at 01:19 PM.
#12
Super Moderator
Thread Starter
Great idea, but I would suggest making that easier. Who needs USB, and SD cards when they could all be downloaded and shared from your smartphone or a cloud directly to the radio? The radio would be connected to the internet.
#13
JK Freak
This is one of those things that's kinda like The Beatle's, you may not like all their songs, but most people will admit they were talented.
I don't want all that stuff, but I can see how other people do, and it takes a lot of knowledge to make it work out right
Rednroll, I'm not trying to be negative or anything, hope it doesn't turn out looking like that, I know it's a lot of work and that's where the industry is going with vehicles
I don't want all that stuff, but I can see how other people do, and it takes a lot of knowledge to make it work out right
Rednroll, I'm not trying to be negative or anything, hope it doesn't turn out looking like that, I know it's a lot of work and that's where the industry is going with vehicles
Last edited by Dat; 06-22-2020 at 01:41 PM.
#14
Super Moderator
Thread Starter
At the risk of being overly repetitive, commonly used functions are safer and quicker with a few dedicated hardware buttons-knobs that don't even need looking at to operate.
Software buttons are great, but on-off, volume, and even radio channel presets -- Stuff that gets frequent use, are much better in hardware that doesn't move, change, and can be quickly operated with just a glance or even blind. There's to much tendency toward distraction these days.
A perfect example is a neighbor I know who missed a slight curve, drove into a ditch, and hit a fence while fiddling with the car's fancy radio. Sounds dumb, and we all tend to blame the operator, but user interfaces can be a big contributor to accidents in cars, power plants, aircraft, etc. It's especially true when people transition from 1970's interfaces that could be used practically blind to something like a touch screen that takes more attention -- It's really a step backwards ergonomically sometimes.
Software buttons are great, but on-off, volume, and even radio channel presets -- Stuff that gets frequent use, are much better in hardware that doesn't move, change, and can be quickly operated with just a glance or even blind. There's to much tendency toward distraction these days.
A perfect example is a neighbor I know who missed a slight curve, drove into a ditch, and hit a fence while fiddling with the car's fancy radio. Sounds dumb, and we all tend to blame the operator, but user interfaces can be a big contributor to accidents in cars, power plants, aircraft, etc. It's especially true when people transition from 1970's interfaces that could be used practically blind to something like a touch screen that takes more attention -- It's really a step backwards ergonomically sometimes.
In the video I posted, any of those 3 center dials can be configured to be the volume knob. If you take a glimsp at the video, you may even notice the knob on the far right has a speaker on it, with a dial indicator. That's a volume control knob with a current volume level indicator on the knob. You turn it, and it displays the current volume level indicator on the small display. So it does exactly what you described a rotary analog knob does but actually a lot more. It's up to the OEM to decide what they want it to control. It can be configured to control one thing such as volume control or a multitude of other things such as your HVAC controls and there's nothing saying it has to be limited to 3 dials. The beauty is that each dial can be configured to control one thing or a multitude of things.
Last edited by Rednroll; 06-22-2020 at 03:23 PM.
The following users liked this post:
Mr.T (06-22-2020)
#15
Super Moderator
Thread Starter
This is one of those things that's kinda like The Beatle's, you may not like all their songs, but most people will admit they were talented.
I don't want all that stuff, but I can see how other people do, and it takes a lot of knowledge to make it work out right
Rednroll, I'm not trying to be negative or anything, hope it doesn't turn out looking like that, I know it's a lot of work and that's where the industry is going with vehicles
I don't want all that stuff, but I can see how other people do, and it takes a lot of knowledge to make it work out right
Rednroll, I'm not trying to be negative or anything, hope it doesn't turn out looking like that, I know it's a lot of work and that's where the industry is going with vehicles
Last edited by Rednroll; 06-22-2020 at 03:16 PM.
#16
JK Freak
On the service side one big downfall is the expense, once it's out of warranty it can cost 800 to 1600 easy to replace an infotainment display/ control for something as simple as a clock not being able to be set, we hadpeople didn't mind paying for it to start with, but didn't like the price of repair parts
#17
JK Enthusiast
An option for FLIR that can aid in driving in bad weather, IE whiteout snow storms, heavy ran or dust would be great. It could even improve night driving.
My background is in Combat from the Army an this technology is crucial to survival, I now work in a place where no matter the weather I have to go to work.
My background is in Combat from the Army an this technology is crucial to survival, I now work in a place where no matter the weather I have to go to work.
The following 2 users liked this post by akguy09:
Rednroll (06-23-2020),
Tim the first (07-25-2020)
#18
JK Enthusiast
I like that as well but a lot of people have tons of gpx files on SD cards or external drives, plug it and download.
#19
Super Moderator
Great ideas! A lot of those items you listed as dreams, the company I work for has already developed the technology for most of them. We have rear view mirror screens integrated with multiple camera views outside the vehicle. Default mode shows the rear view camera. Turn on your right turn signal, a view opens up showing a split screen with a view of what's to the right of you, thus eliminating blind spots to your right. The side mirrors are also displays fed by external cameras. In cabin telecom systems, we already have that as well. It is currently launching on higher end Cadillac and Ford/Lincoln Navigator/Expedition vehicles. You can easily communicate with someone sitting in the far rear seat of a large Lincoln navigator from the front driver's seat. In cabin background noise is reduced and a direct link of communications is established, you don't need to be wearing headphones. We have the technologies to make that happen without wearing headphones. We've been demoing this to the OEMs for the past 3-4 years.
Yep, we already have that. That's what we call "contextual and haptic" buttons and knobs.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n4C01lV5hEQ
In that video it shows 3 knobs in the center of the dash. Each of those knobs have a tiny OLED touch screen in them. You turn the knobs and you can feel the clicks, and when you turn the knob the display will change of what you're actually controlling with the knob which since it is software driven can be anything and the label shown on those small screens changes to show you what you're controlling. The screens are actually push buttons as well. That's from 2019. Now we need more focus placed on meeting the needs of us off-road guys. The incline angle indicator is a great one to add! Shouldn't be too difficult since most navigation systems includes a gyro which provides exactly that type of information. Just need an app to display it. Now what would be even cooler is displaying the angle of the incline/decline before you even attempt to climb it huh? That may be possible once lidar systems become more adopted on vehicles.
Yep, we already have that. That's what we call "contextual and haptic" buttons and knobs.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n4C01lV5hEQ
In that video it shows 3 knobs in the center of the dash. Each of those knobs have a tiny OLED touch screen in them. You turn the knobs and you can feel the clicks, and when you turn the knob the display will change of what you're actually controlling with the knob which since it is software driven can be anything and the label shown on those small screens changes to show you what you're controlling. The screens are actually push buttons as well. That's from 2019. Now we need more focus placed on meeting the needs of us off-road guys. The incline angle indicator is a great one to add! Shouldn't be too difficult since most navigation systems includes a gyro which provides exactly that type of information. Just need an app to display it. Now what would be even cooler is displaying the angle of the incline/decline before you even attempt to climb it huh? That may be possible once lidar systems become more adopted on vehicles.
Actually with the lidar systems, couldn't you theoretically create a pretty detailed map of the terrain directly in front of you and use that to make a spotting system inside the vehicle? If the map of the trail is good enough and the dimensions and locations of the wheels and snag points are accurate enough, you can plan the wheel path, axle angles, interferences, etc. It'd be like a digital spotter that plots your line on the screen in the dash. Any sensors under the Jeep would have to be heavily armored and waterproofed. Also I don't know how well that stuff functions when caked with mud or snow, same issue with those and the camera systems. Anything exposed below the paint line someone will find a way to use as a rock slider. This is cool stuff!
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Rednroll (06-23-2020)
#20
Super Moderator
Thread Starter
On the service side one big downfall is the expense, once it's out of warranty it can cost 800 to 1600 easy to replace an infotainment display/ control for something as simple as a clock not being able to be set, we hadpeople didn't mind paying for it to start with, but didn't like the price of repair parts
Last edited by Rednroll; 07-20-2020 at 07:59 PM.