Samsung is working on screens for self-driving cars – Picture and sound – What’s new

Look, a really good plan. Though of course you’ve been secretly watching these OEMs come up with car screen solutions for a long time. I think the question here is more about what side/degree of integration in the chain this is.

When I view the image like this, the focus is mostly on a curved “cockpit” screen for infotainment. Of course, parts like Samsung Display, AU Optronics, etc. I’ve been in that business for a long time. Said through a Bosch, or directly through the hyundai/volkswagen/audi of this world. Every modern car, whether it’s a Tesla with only a 15″ screen or a Hyundai Ioniq, has a digital cockpit. This makes sense. They’re safe, reliable and flexible. Even airplanes have it.

A new trend is that the logic of the digital cockpit, in addition to the basic functionality, is increasingly flexible: you see it both in Android and in Apple Land: Carplay/Android Auto has more and more “widgets” that display car information read it and present it “more fun” for the user on the digital cockpit (in addition to the digital cockpit its presentation).

I think this is the first time at CES that a panel maker (other than a chip maker, all the major chip makers have already announced an automotive platform) jumps into this market. The joke is, while it’s not “new,” they’re clearly trying to draw attention to things like image quality and multiple “image” options for the car.

I actually think self-driving isn’t even the biggest enabler here. That’s not even why you see nVidia’s system being used. Where you see it there are “self-driving-like” options, such as intelligent cruise control, traffic sign recognition, and better parking displays such as intelligently pasted 360 camera images, which need a lot of power.

Even the whole use case: “watching a movie while you’re a driver” is paper thin to me. I’m not convinced by self-driving either (or, I’m convinced, but not with other traffic), so I’m not going to drive a movie as a driver, even if the car stays in its lane, and at the speed of the vehicle in front (and goes automatically at 80 when I pass from the A27 to the parallel A12 where there is trajectory control). That, and I can still park my battleship with a rear window so high and small that the mirrors don’t tell everything clearly in a narrow garage in The Hague (and that has to be done at the rear window because that’s where the cargo is the port) .

Especially things like SCC are things that increase convenience for me, just like power windows did (I really don’t want to turn ever again) or power steering. Or even NOT having to work with a choke. SCC makes cruise control operational even if your co-driver doesn’t have it (with normal cruise control that was very annoying).

These types of screens and the flexible way of displaying information can make the car easier. A curve is also very logical, if you feel that a sticking point with the Ioniq5 (less so with its sister, the EV6) is the ease of use of the left screen.

The rear seat screens are like that too. While having an underseat outlet for “whatever you want” is nice, I think as a kid (while sitting in the backseat with my Lynx or Gameboy) I would have liked a screen with HDMI or later: Scart in.

All of this has nothing to do with self-driving, but more than anything I think we’ll choose our cars for more options than just driving. If you can use the latest cool gadgets of Android Auto and Apple Carplay with this screen and it makes things like SCC and parking even easier then I’m all for it!