From pocket-stretching smartphones to wall-sticking TVs, Americans have often wondered: How much screen is too much?
The question has come to today’s gadget-laden cars, whose increasingly colossal displays are dividing opinion among designers, car buyers and industry critics. These do-it-all touchscreens, the hubs of many new cars, have drawn backlash for their size as well as clunky interfaces that can take your eyes off the road.
“I think we’ve reached Peak Screen,” said Maserati design chief Klaus Busse, who previously led design for Alfa Romeo, Fiat and Lancia. “Screens have their right to exist – they do a lot of things better than physical switches. It’s gone a little too far.”
Beyond having ergonomic and safety concerns, some luxury designers are opposed for aesthetic reasons. For them, screens are not sexy or luxurious.
“When flat screens came out, the trend was bigger, better,” said Kai Langer, head of design at BMW i, the automaker’s electric division. “But ‘bigger’ isn’t always richer.”
Displays are now integral to most modern cars, which are more or less rolling supercomputers, running up to 14 times more code than a Boeing 787. And designers must consider the demands of car owners who expect your Apple or Android smartphones get stuck. up impeccably.
“Steve Jobs changed the world and now humanity touches a screen,” said Gorden Wagener, chief designer of Mercedes-Benz. “This also fundamentally changes the car. The car needs a good interface, not just a wiper switch and a turn signal.”
When Elon Musk unveiled the Tesla Model S in 2009, the command center, with its 17-inch LCD touchscreen, looked almost as changing as the car itself. And by giving drivers digital control of the car’s functions, Tesla was able to avoid the expense of engineering, wiring and building a cabin full of expensive analog switches, buttons and gauges, or having to buy them to another car manufacturer or supplier.
Especially on Tesla’s Model 3 and Model Y, one might suspect that interior designers worked overtime on their nifty displays and then called it a day. Several of Tesla’s competitors imitated the austere, vaguely sci-fi atmosphere of the cabins.
The makers of later EVs, including BMW’s futuristic but sumptuous iX and Kia EV6, came up with warmer car interiors better suited to drivers who might not want to feel like they’re spending hours inside the central system of ” Throne”.“. Some designers are even ditching most EV tropes, the Mac-like gray-silver-white monochromes.
With its enlarged touchscreen, Tesla also spurred an arms race measured in inches. Ford introduced a 15.5-inch screen in its Mustang Mach-e and F-150 Lightning electric vehicles Startup Rivian has installed a 16-inch screen in the R1T and R1S models. Another California company, Lucid, created a 34-inch curved glass display for the Air sedan.
And then there is the “Hyperscreen”, from Mercedes-Benz.
Powered by eight processors, framed under a sculptural slab of double-coated glass, the HyperDisplay (actually three screens that appear as one) distributes 56 inches of digital interface across the dashboard. Augmented reality navigation generates virtual street signs and directional guides on the pavement in a real-time camera view. Almost magically, virtual address numbers flash over homes and businesses as you approach a destination.
However, HyperDisplay doesn’t always work as elegantly as it looks, especially when drivers are driving. Issues include finicky thumb controls on the steering wheel and moments of narrow confusion, especially for customers who grew up with pre-digital rides. Wagener said Mercedes intentionally launched its Hyperscreen in its electric vehicles to target tech-savvy customers.
BMW is no stranger to screens, having introduced iDrive to the 7 Series sedan more than 20 years ago. That digital operating system, with a now-picturesque 6.5-inch screen on top of the dash, angering many drivers because it was very difficult to use. But as BMW refined it over the years, rival car companies adopted similar systems.
The i7 sedan, a new electric model from BMW, wraps a curved screen around the driver. The rear of the car offers a 31-inch foldable theater touchscreen, with 5G connectivity and Amazon Fire for streaming. Another 5.5-inch screen is located on each rear armrest.
At the annual CES in Las Vegas in January, BMW launched this glove going way beyond the touchscreen. In the iVision Dee, a concept sedan that showcases a series of BMW “Neue Klasse” electric vehicles (the first of which is scheduled to arrive in 2025), the windshield itself replaces the dashboard touchscreen.
“We use the biggest screen we already have in a car, which is the windshield,” said Mr. Langer, head of design at BMW.
The augmented reality windshield allows for “Minority Report”-style projections of traditional gauges (speedometer; temperature gauges; audio displays) and streaming and social content. The system, which BMW will call Panoramic Vision on showroom models, greatly expands the front screens that project content into the field of vision, allowing drivers to check controls without taking their eyes off the road.
Regarding the astral projections blocking the view of I-95, Mr. Langer said drivers could choose any display level. A “mixed reality slider” can confine traditional information such as a speedometer to a thin lower windshield strip, where today’s head-up displays already work. Drivers more comfortable with digital projections can fill more of the windshield glass. When the car isn’t moving, even during charging stops, passengers can eventually use the entire windshield as a virtual drive-in for movies, games, Zoom meetings or trips to the metaverse.
At the Las Vegas convention, BMW president Oliver Zipse said he was confident regulators would eventually ban large dashboard displays because of safety concerns. “If you have to look down to operate your car, we think that’s a big mistake,” he told Automotive News Europe.
Mr. Langer noted that the featured displays don’t appear in the pages of high-end shelter or architecture magazines. “None of our consumers would want to cover their living room with screens,” he said. “They want their Eames chair or Nelson clock. And we want our customers to feel at home.”
And if touchscreens shrink or even disappear from car cabins, designers will be free to reclaim interiors for something more aesthetically pleasing. “A touchscreen doesn’t speak to our senses,” said Mr. Longer. “We are made to touch fabrics and detect different surfaces; this is what makes us human”.
Some of the iVision Dee’s cool technology, including a chameleon-like body that can instantly change to one of 32 colors, may be removed or watered down in production versions. However, BMW promises that the widescreen is intended for showrooms.
Mercedes-Benz is skeptical. Although it offers head-up displays, he believes windshield projections “are light years behind the quality and resolution you can get on a screen,” Wagener said.
“It’s definitely an innovative approach,” he continued. “But we’ve tried it, and it’s jarring or disorienting to have it all in your viewing area.”
Maserati steers a middle course with its GranTurismo. Its interior includes a couple of unobtrusive screens.
“We don’t want a screen to be the main protagonist,” said Mr. Busse, Maserati’s head of design.
In his opinion, the car is a refuge from the digital world and its pressures.
“For us,” he said, “it’s still about the driving experience — enjoying this beautiful machine and the field you’re driving it in.”
