Abstract
The digital/virtual world is part of our daily live. E-Commerce and virtual marketplaces, tele-medicine and bio-chips, information and multimedia accessible for everyone, everywhere and all the time, are only some examples of how these emerging technologies are changing live at the edge from the mechanical to the digital century. The automobile and the experience of driving a vehicle will also take a major change and will heavily be influenced by the digital and virtual systems. This paper will review central ideas about the vehicles and techniques today and tomorrow and will try to redefine the in-car HMI driven by the emerging technologies and user scenarios. X-by-wire technologies are already in use in automobiles today and when integrated they offer potential for more safety, stability and comfort. Systems to reduce drivers distraction, like driver state monitoring and dialogue managers, are under development and just before entering the automobiles. These systems already have an influence on the in-car HMI, and the major focus will be not to confuse the driver during half- or fully automated functions. When established the integrated systems will change the driver-vehicle interface from a purely interaction to a collaboration interface. The vehicles intelligent agents are supported by mobile agents to address the input from preferred or related service points. Together with increased safety demands consumers are looking for more individual and personalised vehicles. The vehicles will recognise the individual drivers profile and wishes and will take this information to adapt the HMI related systems. Depending on the actual driving situation and the driver status additional adjustment could be made for a more convenient and smart driving.
Bringing the various subjects related to vehicles and transport into a benchmarking process could be helpful to identify the importance and influence of future vehicle developments. The major areas which have an impact on the transportation future are the society, the technology and the vehicle market. The framework of benchmarking of this three subjects is described in the following chapters.
Various models of the society are described by researchers but trends are difficult to forecast. The influence of some society models for the future vehicles are more important than others. Nothing new is that the individual mobility leads to an increasing number of cars. Vehicle prices are gaining importance when buying a car. The class of micro, small and compact vehicles will reach a market share of more than 50%, while business cars are becoming more emotional, because of additional private. New selling concepts for used vehicles will be required (e-commerce), where an updating and refreshing should be possible. Space, comfort, and individual style are generally getting more important. New technologies, materials and coatings are already emerging in the automotive and non-automotive market. The generic concepts of intelligent materials are actuators and motors which react like muscles. Actuators could transform e.g. temperature or electro-magnetic fields into shape, stiffness, positions, frequencies or other mechanical characteristics. There are Sensors which could be used as nerves and memory. And there are Communication networks, representing the human brain and nerve system and form-remembering materials could be used for damping applications.
Besides the market trends generated by the various society groups trends in the car equipment could be seen as well. A study of a selection of concept vehicles has identified the increasing application of voice decoding systems as most relevant to the HMI. Also advanced active and passive safety concepts and traffic information systems have been shown, which will have a major impact on the user interface. First ideas and concepts of new paints (changing colour) and systems to individual size fittings have been presented, also the car as the second home and retro-design vehicles. The next step will be concepts to more individual, personal atmosphere and perhaps the users feeling recognition. There may be a trend to the multi-purpose, modular vehicles on one side and the real fun-car on the other side. But this assumption is not fully verified yet.