Automotive user experiences enhanced with AI technology have become a market focus for companies such as Panasonic and Mercedes-Benz. COVID-19 has forced a greater role for cars as entertainment centers, while tech companies are also focused on driver and passenger safety.
On Monday, Panasonic Automotive Systems of America introduced a new Augmented Realty Head-Up Display as part of the all-digital CES 2021. Optics and imaging technology have been combined with AI in the company’s SPYDR cockpit domain controller to render near-field and far-field content to display vehicle speed and pedestrian detection in convenient line of site of the driver.
The 3D display will also show navigation features like the height of an approaching bridge overpass. The new AR HUD uses eye tracking technology to help project information at a driver’s level of sight based on his or her eye and head position.
AI-based augmented reality navigation technology provides multi-color 3D graphics that adjust with the moving vehicle, similar to the way a GPS display works. The driving environment is also updated in real-time, useful for assisted driving technologies.
Scott Kirchner, president of Panasonic Automotive, described the AR HUD as one of a number of new technologies that “make the cabin of a vehicle like a second home.” SPYDR acts as a supercomputer for running such systems, taking the place of smaller independent computers.
Part of Panasonic’s mission is to help drivers take full advantage of assisted driver technologies. He said the company’s research has shown that many drivers turn off driver assistance systems in urban areas “because it is too hard to understand what the systems are telling them.” AR HUD can make it easier to help drivers, so they won’t have to interpret various warnings and alerts shown or heard from the vehicle dashboard.
Panasonic is also working on an open platform for traffic management and safety and has collaborate with Utah transportation officials on a warning system to send accident notifications to emergency personnel so that response times can be reduced to seconds.
Also at CES 2021 on Monday, Mercedes-Benz showed a new Hyperscreen MBUX for EQS vehicles that relies on AI. It is designed to work as an assistant for the driver and front passenger that are constantly learning and improving.
Hyperscreen is a large, curved screen panel that will incorporate the AI software to make personalized suggestions about infotainment and comfort. It features the ability fo show applications important to a driver at the top of the driver’s field of view, eliminating scrolling or sub-menus.
In one example, Mercedes-Benz said AI will know if a driver has always called a particular person on the evening drive home and then suggest making such a call on subsequent days.
In the EQS, the suspension can be raised to offer more ground clearance and MBUX will remember the GPS position of where a user previously used the “raise vehicle” function so if the vehicle approaches the same GPS position again, MBUX will automatically suggest raising the EQS vehicle.