Faurecia Is Designing The “Cockpit Of The Future”

4 years ago Zachary Shahan 0 Comments




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If you’ve been reading CleanTechnica this weekend, you know that I thoroughly enjoyed Alex Voigt’s in-depth interview with Peter Mertens, former board member of Audi, Volkswagen Group, Volvo, & Jaguar Land Rover and former R&D head of Audi for CleanTechnica. Following that, I dug into one of the companies Mertens is now sitting on the board of, Recogni. I was also intrigued by Faurecia and then compelled to do a piece on it.

Faurecia has been working to design the “Cockpit of the Future,” and I have to say that it looks appealing. Here are a few visualizations from that link with notes in the captions:

Those are seats I could spend some serious time in! And the wooden trim is very nice and homey. The view is superb, too.
The idea is appealing. Though, the screen looks a bit short.
“As an example of its expertise in mechatronics, kinematics and design, Faurecia has created a unique Morphing Instrument Panel. When the driver switches from driving to autonomous mode, the display glides from the driver’s side to a central position and simultaneously the instrument panel surface smoothly adapts its shape. Both movements are managed by Faurecia’s innovative know-how in micro-mechanisms and materials. That way, occupants benefit from an optimal display surface for either driving or entertainment mode. During driving mode, the display serves as cluster giving supplying road information and safety signals, and can also act as a central screen for navigation and media. During autonomous mode, the display becomes a large infotainment screen visible for all passengers.”
The message here is that the audio could supposedly be split down the middle of the car decently — or directed very accurately at individual passengers.
Ditto for temperature/climate controls.
“Faurecia has developed a new generation of on-board connected interface: the Smart Control Unit. Easy to reach at all times, the Smart Control Unit allows you to integrate your smartphone in the most convenient place in the car for the occupant. It can then be used to control the displays, seat position thermal or audio settings, etc.”

 

“In the future, when vehicles are autonomous, the way occupants will be able to spend their time in the vehicle will be crucial. Thanks to its versatile architecture and smart Human Machine Interfaces (HMI), Faurecia’s cockpit will adapt to occupants’ needs to ensure a personalized experience in all driving modes.”
This one is a bit confusing. Is the car zapping you? Is this safe? Well, the visualization is supposed to just show that the car is monitoring you for health and well being reasons. “Faurecia’s R&D teams have developed technology solutions that evaluate driver or passenger comfort in order to provide an optimal onboard experience and enhance wellness. The goal: to offer a more personalized comfort experience, with individual preferences stored in the cloud and using artificial intelligence to anticipate user needs.”

There’s a whole section on predictive comfort and wellness that deserves extra quotation:

“The cockpit of the future’s smart seat will be able to analyze physiological data and then apply countermeasures to mitigate motion sickness, stress, discomfort, drowsiness, and readiness to operate controls. Data gathered on the driver’s condition is translated into a variety of personalized actions that include adjusting the seat position, a five-program massage capability, seat ventilation, changes in ambient lighting or the audio environment. Over time, the cockpit will learn the occupant’s preferences to provide a more comfortable and enjoyable on board experience. This starts with first identifying the occupants and, based on their profile, establishing a baseline recommendation for thermal, postural and audio comfort.

“Over time, as individuals adjust their settings, seats will register these changes and leverage artificial intelligence to learn and predict when the occupant will need certain adjustments to maintain the most positive overall experience.”

Interesting. …

What do you think? Cockpit of the future? Nightmare? Unrealistic? Pretty cool but have some tweaks to suggest?

All images courtesy Faurecia.

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Zachary Shahan

Zach is tryin' to help society help itself one word at a time. He spends most of his time here on CleanTechnica as its director, chief editor, and CEO. Zach is recognized globally as an electric vehicle, solar energy, and energy storage expert. He has presented about cleantech at conferences in India, the UAE, Ukraine, Poland, Germany, the Netherlands, the USA, Canada, and Curaçao. Zach has long-term investments in Tesla [TSLA], NIO [NIO], Xpeng [XPEV], Ford [F], ChargePoint [CHPT], Amazon [AMZN], Piedmont Lithium [PLL], Lithium Americas [LAC], Albemarle Corporation [ALB], Nouveau Monde Graphite [NMGRF], Talon Metals [TLOFF], Arclight Clean Transition Corp [ACTC], and Starbucks [SBUX]. But he does not offer (explicitly or implicitly) investment advice of any sort.

Zachary Shahan has 7875 posts and counting. See all posts by Zachary Shahan