Chinese cars drive the trend of panels with large screens in the automotive market

Digital Cluster: Innovation in Car Dashboards

Fashion exists in all sectors. Whether it's a style of clothing, a color of lipstick, a type of TV show or even a haircut, there are always those who lead the way and are followed by others and, thus, form a trend. In the automotive world it is no different. And we're not talking about body style – like SUVs, for example, which have become a rage around the world. The topic here is the internal layout of cars, which increasingly use large screens on the dashboard.

Chinese Cars and Their Advanced Screens

The Beijing Auto Show, in China, is full of models with these characteristics. Chery, Omoda, BYD, GWM and practically all Chinese companies make use of this feature in their launches. The recently revealed Omoda 7, for example, which is inspired by the gamer universe and should arrive in Brazil by 2026, is a coupe SUV that features a screen for the 15.6-inch multimedia center that slides across the dashboard, and can be centralized or in in front of the front passenger, for example.

And other manufacturers go further. Wey, for example, a brand that belongs to GWM, presented the SUV 07, which attracted attention for its interior, with a giant screen that runs from one end of the dashboard to the other. It does not stop there. Neta – a Chinese company that will arrive in Brazil in the second half of this year – also offers this type of solution. The L SUV, for example, stands out for its dashboard with two 15.6-inch screens each, which operate as a multimedia center for the driver and passenger.

Will it be reversible?

With the tendency to push giant multimedia centers down consumers' throats, few manufacturers are still reluctant to use physical buttons for basic functions, like Toyota, for example. Hyundai has also been removing some modern features and giving space to physical controls. The same did Volkswagen, which recently reversed its use of touch screen buttons on the steering wheel.

BMW and the Future of Automotive Dashboards

BMW also doesn't believe that the trend of giant iPads attached to car dashboards will last for long. Although today the brand makes use of giant screens, as in the i7 sedan, during last year's Consumer Electronics Show (CES), held in Las Vegas, in the United States, the Bavarian brand's CEO, Oliver Zipse, said he is absolutely convinced that the large screens installed in the central part of car dashboards will soon disappear. “In ten years, that was over.”

The argument, it is worth remembering, took place in parallel to the presentation of the i Vision Dee Concept, which has a clean panel and uses the head up display as the main source of information for the driver, since everything is projected onto the windshield. The information projection system across the entire windshield is expected to come with BMW's next cars, with the Neue Klasse platform, in the middle of the decade.

Evolution of Automotive Panels

At the beginning of the 20th century, the Ford Model T didn't even have an interior. There were only the essential controls for driving, such as the steering wheel and levers. Years later, when the car's occupants were no longer subject to the cold and rain, the first treats began to appear. The German VW Beetle, for example, offered a small vase on the dashboard in the 1954 version, a time when cars already had a speedometer display, radio and glove box, for example.

In the years following World War II, North American industry, freed from producing weapons, invested in luxury. This included comfortable cars, such as the 1957 Chevrolet Bel Air convertible, for example, and the Pontiac Trans Am. The latter prioritized the driver-oriented interior design and featured several displays that highlighted the model's sporting tendency.

In more recent history, cars began to innovate with modern panels and a central instrument panel, as offered by the Citroën Picasso minivan. In it, the gear lever was even located on the panel itself, in order to free up space between the seats.

Two-story panel

And it was in the eighth generation Honda Civic that the interior began to take on a futuristic look. The two-story dashboard had a digital speedometer at the top and a rev counter at the bottom. The small steering wheel and 'Z' shaped brake lever reinforced the modern characteristics.

In 2012, Volkswagen broke with tradition once and for all. At that time, the Beetle left behind the role of “people's car” and assumed a sporting identity, not only due to its Golf GTI engine (2.0 turbo), but also due to its interior full of instruments and technology. It even had a central screen.

Central screens have even started to dominate other parts of the panel for some time now. The Mercedes-Benz E-Class, for example, allowed information (whether about the car or the route) to be monitored by other occupants of the vehicle, not just the driver. Today, there are cars that offer internet connection and that even drive themselves. The next steps for the industry remain to be seen.