Preh Car Connect

Enhancing the driving experience through the seamless use of the connected car services

Project Type

Tech demo
Automotive UX R&D

Project scope

Instrument cluster
Infotainment system
Connected Services integration
Physical rotary knob

Services

User Experience Design
Visual Design
Prototyping
Qt Development
Industrial design

At Siili_Auto we have developed a demo for our customer Preh Car Connect for the 2019 Automobile Industry Exhibition in Shanghai. The goal was to showcase how the driving experience and safety can be enhanced by seamless use of the upcoming services available in connected cars.

The demo is based on 3 physical screens spanning an entire dashboard. There are an instrument cluster and two touch screens for the infotainment system. The middle display has a physical rotary knob bonded in the lower section. User can interact with the prototype by touch gestures (e.g. swipe) and using a rotary knob. Qt 3D and Mapbox were selected as the technology for the demo as these are great for prototyping.

Preh Car Connect team has been responsible for the high-level concept, integration and manufacturing. At Siili_Auto we have been responsible for the design of the driver experience and software development of the interactive demo.

Creative Technology Process

We’ve had 2 months to deliver the demo. At Siili_Auto we follow a 4 step process to transform concepts into working software that helps us stay focused, iterate quickly and test ideas:

Discover

Research & Understand

Define

Envision & Synthesize

Develop

Design & Prototype

Evolve & Deliver

Evaluate & Refine

User journey, wireframes, user flow

We’ve begun by defining the target audience, the demo setup during the show and summarizing what is important for our customer to showcase. We’ve asked ourselves a few questions:

  • How can we utilize our customer’s technology products to build a consistent digital experience?
  • How to grab viewers’ attention?
  • How V2X can be used to make driving safer and more convenient?
  • How to support the demo team in presenting the features during the show?

We’ve gone through the ideation phase and created a user journey that included the features which we wanted to show. This helped us to look at the demo through the end-user’s eyes and draft the concept that combines multiple standalone features into a new and seamless experience.

Final User Journey was – Mr. Xu and his wife are driving from home to the hotel as scheduled on holiday.

Few findings from that phase:

  1. With 3 screens available on the dashboard the middle screen is a shared space between the driver and the passenger. We’ve utilized this as an extra feature and designed the interactions to support the sharing rather than compete for space or confuse.
  2. With multiple people visiting the show the demo had to support a hybrid scenario - a predefined user journey that progressed automatically when no visitor was playing with the demo; and a set of interactions that the visitors could explore independently.

KNOB

A rotary knob connects well-known mechanical operation systems with digital displays. This is something what user is familiar with. A different functions (based on context) can be placed on the small display within knob. Thus we use this space to show volume change, temperature change and more.

Gestures

Nowadays gestures are well and common known interaction between user and devices (such as smartphones, tablets etc.).

In our concept 2 screens supports multi touch. So we utilized this feature to build a few different views for particular app. For example, when Navigation is shown on center screen, swiping to the left is changing instrument cluster content - it shows "turn-by-turn" Naviagation right on instrument cluster (see animation below).

HVAC

HVAC view gives user possibility to adjust climate in car to meet personal expectations. Additionaly with multi-purpose rotary knob user can set temperature, air flow strength.

Rainfall detection

The rainy weather situation is automatically recognized by the vehicle during drive (e.g. via rain sensor). To avoid a fogged windshield, the system proposes a change in climate settings. There are 3 predefined climate profiles to choose.

3D Navigation

For presentation we've used Mapbox maps. Highly customizable and easy to integrate. With 3D view for easier navigation.

Animations (V2X)

Green Light Optimal Speed Advisory

Based on communication between cars and surrounding infrastructure, in this particular case with traffic lights, driver is advised to adjust speed to reach the lights when on green.

Emergency Brake Warning

This kind of warning alerts drivers about another car braking hard some distance ahead. When the first car brakes suddenly it sends out a warning message advising of a sudden braking action. Thus cars behind can take action and warn drivers.

Intersection collision warning

Approaching to the intersection driver is warned about possible collision.

Unreal engine 4

At Siili Auto we're doing everything we can to always stay ahead of the curve with the HMI technology and always identify biggest pain points that our customers need to address. As the tech progresses exponentially every year, the need for more rich designs and push for improvements in the process of bringing those designs to life on the target are becoming the number one concern of many OEMs and TIER-1s.

Enhancing the driving experience through the seamless use of the connected car services

At Siili_Auto we have developed a demo for our customer Preh Car Connect for the 2019 Automobile Industry Exhibition in Shanghai. The goal was to showcase how the driving experience and safety can be enhanced by seamless use of the upcoming services available in connected cars.