Member-only story
How to improve your EV startup and really STAND out in 2021 and beyond! Part 1 of 5
Screen sizes in cars kept increasing to merge with the instrument cluster and are now being renamed “hyperscreens” (see Mercedes-Benz EQS concept). This does not come as a surprise, it happened with phones and it’s happening with cars.
Auto manufacturers can stand out by rethinking the purpose of those huge screens and enhance the driving experience by improving visibility, as opposed to adding complex technology, and Sci-Fi UI to for radio channel selection or AC controls (new infotainment systems become harder to navigate through). For this, they will need to make those hyperscreens even larger and push them behind the pedals.
Helicopters and other air or water craft have been doing this for decades — increasing visibility to the maximum.
Why not bring that experience into cars with technology we already have?
360º panoramic cameras have been around for over two decades, where the video feed from 6–8 cameras positioned around the car is stitched together to give a full top-down view of the car and its surroundings.
Similar to backup cameras, some cars now come with a frontal camera systems, that use a wide-angle lens camera or the feed from multiple cameras located on corners and center of the car’s front end for increased visibility when parking near or driving away from curbs, walls, cars, and other obstacles (Chevy Corvette C7, C8, new Mazda 3, etc.).
How much will this increase visibility?
The diagram below shows a regular field of view limited by the cars windshield frame. You can see that the LED monitor nearly doubles the driver’s field of view.
Compare it to the natural human field of view:
