Market research on automotive HMI

Abstract

With the launch of the latest (4th) generation of infotainment design from manufacturers such as Ford in 2010, We believe that Tier1 suppliers and vehicle OEMs are beginning to realign themselves to focus on consumer requirements, rather than automotive can-do?s?. This is in turn leading to encouraging developments in the area of standardized platforms and software that will reduce the costs associated with the traditional proprietary project developments of HMI (human-machine interface). In the past, infotainment hardware was perhaps the market differentiator. If consumers paid for higher specification vehicles, it was very likely that they also got higher specification hardware systems with improved levels of functionality. However, the HMI was not a key priority on many early infotainment system designs, as most vehicle OEMs tended to be more engineering driven, than media driven; as a result they fell behind the rapid pace of developments in the consumer and portable device space. On next generation Infotainment systems, flexible software and HMI design has overtaken functional hardware design in terms of priority. The most obvious example of this is the navigation market which sits at the cross-over point between consumer and automotive. This market has moved-on considerably since the introduction of navigation as a free app? by Google in Q4 2009. Previously navigation as a function was directly tied to a specific embedded and dedicated hardware platform or portable navigation devices (PND), however the introduction of navigation as an app? has refocused the value chain proposition on providing a good HMI for the navigation application. As the industry evolves to embrace software as the market differentiator, the quality of backend services and good HMI will be a key market differentiator, as companies move beyond hardware to re-define their new value-add: The creation and deployment of consumer/automotive interface standards such as Terminal Mode, SYNC Applink from Ford and AutolinQ from Conti will be followed by market deployments across ALL vehicle segments, rather than the traditional introduction into the premium vehicle sector only. The introduction of these software-tool-standards? is part of greater market recognition that without some kind of common standards, it will never be possible to bring the fast running train of consumer development into the slow development cycles of automotive industry. We believe that reconfigurable HMI design will be a significant contributor to the goal of premium carmakers to deliver a personalized product to customers. This represents a significant opportunity to Tier 1 suppliers that can enable these HMI solutions. The upcoming generation of automotive consumers is making purchase decisions based on very different criteria if compared to previous generations. At very least they want to be able to access their portable devices and content in the vehicle, however it is up to Infotainment designers to ensure that these connected devices can be controlled in a way that is acceptable and better than trying to handle the device directly while driving. We believe that the markets that will be most sensitive to good or bad HMI experiences are actually the high volume mid-segment vehicle categories. This target market typically attracts younger drivers, or first time buyers, who have increasingly heightened expectations of what they want from their device or interface. These expectations include features that were only launched in the consumer space 3-4 years ago. (E.g. social networking) What is clear is that the car is not a standard? consumer item, and just because it is possible? to include a particular feature, the industry needs to examine if the introduction of more advanced web access features are in the best interests of the driver. Failure to investigate these points could see designers moving down a road towards legislation, law-suits and eventually restrictions in device usage that could actually take the whole HMI development agenda back several years.