Redefining the “New Standard” for Smart Cockpits

As the smart car industry becomes a trend, the car’s “smart cockpit” has become the “third living space” after traditional home and office scenes, with various smart interactions and services being introduced. This change has transformed the smart cockpit from being functional to being intelligent and will lead to wider development prospects based on the application and service ecology.

However, from another perspective, current car companies have different standards for defining “smart cockpits,” and the configuration data is too complicated. Therefore, our goal is to simplify the complexity and not be limited to the current existing models, but to establish a truly “useful, user-friendly, and applicable” new standard for the smart cockpit industry.

For an intelligent terminal that can be “certified,” hardware is the foundation, interactive capability (system) is the key that users rely on, and application ecology is the upgraded user experience. This principle also applies to smart cockpits. Based on this, we have launched the “Digital Intelligence + ICBT-100 Smart Cockpit Evaluation Standard,” which focuses on three major categories of smart hardware, interactive capability, and application ecology. For each major category, we evaluate scores based on two dimensions of data and experience, and further divide these into more than 30 items to test how well the smart car we use in our daily life is performing.

Smart Hardware

In the smart hardware category, we focus on three aspects: screen, basic hardware, and expansion interfaces, which are also the most intuitive aspects in our daily usage.

The specific screen evaluation category includes seven items, namely: 1. size, 2. color, 3. brightness, 4. resolution (display delicacy), 5. temperature control, 6. external screen material/hardness, and 7. visual angle. These parameters directly affect the user’s visual perception. An excellent screen can indeed be “eye-catching,” and a higher brightness level can also keep the car visible under high light environments.

Basic hardware includes 1. processor and 2. memory, representing the basic computing power when the car machine is running. Although most car machines currently operate without lag, as new version systems are constantly being updated, good hardware can have a decisive impact on whether the new version system can run smoothly.

The expansion interface is easy to understand and mainly focuses on the car machine’s USB interface type and 4G/5G communication modules. Although this aspect has a low weight in our evaluation system, it is still an essential testing item that cannot be ignored.

Interactive Capability

In the IT industry, there is a saying: “No matter how good the hardware is, without system optimization, it is useless.” This reflects the importance of the system. At the same time, the interaction interface is not only the most direct contact between car owners and car machines, but also excellent logic can directly improve the user experience of the entire cabin. Therefore, in this smart cabin test, the ability of car-machine interaction occupies a large part.

In this section, we divide it into three dimensions: system, voice, and others. The system scoring category includes: 1. system logic, 2. UI design, 3. touch response. Outstanding and easy-to-use system logic can greatly reduce user learning costs. With beautiful UI and fast touch response, it is even better.

With the iterative update of AI voice technology, the in-car voice system has become an indispensable configuration of the smart cabin. Therefore, in the voice scoring system, we have subdivided it into 4 items: 1. control range, 2. advanced functions, 3. recognition rate, and 4. emotional degree. It is worth mentioning that the newly added “emotional degree” can well reflect whether the voice system has truly become intelligent, rather than simply AI synthesis.

In other categories, we will conduct more detailed functional testing on 1. remote control, 2. biometric identification, 3. camera system, and 4. navigation system, in order to further improve the interaction experience of the entire smart cabin.

Application Ecology

However, looking through the phenomenon to see the essence, we will find that to achieve a truly intelligent cabin, it is not solely relying on the car machine system itself but also needs to incorporate a more abundant application ecology. After all, without sufficient application ecology, the system itself does not have much value. This is in line with the currently booming IT industry.

Similarly, for car companies, they must also lay out early and lay a solid foundation for building an application ecosystem. Otherwise, they will be in a disadvantaged position in the subsequent competition. This is also why car machines seem unimportant, but every automaker wants to get a slice of the cake.

Therefore, in this part, we attach equal importance. Combining the existing highest standards of intelligence and judgment of future industry trends, we carry out redundant projects with higher requirements, mainly including: 1. OTA upgrade, 2. audio and video resources, 3. entertainment gaming experience, and 4. expanded functions (HUD, personalized mode, etc.). The scoring criteria are based on the average level of current smart cars and belong to advanced needs sub-segmented from intelligence.

In ConclusionIt is well known that with the improvement of the intelligence level of automobiles, the significant change of the intelligent cockpit is from passive interaction (initiated by humans) to active interaction (initiated by humans or machines), and the way of obtaining content and services is increased. Therefore, the in-vehicle system needs to be more active, natural and emotional, further satisfying the needs of passengers for in-cabin information, entertainment, work and other activities.

At the same time, the definition brought by the rich cabin data is more complex. The evaluation criteria of our intelligent cockpit are to explore intelligent experiences that are meaningful and practical to consumers, make scientific formulations, and hope to help automakers fully consider the product definition and function definition of intelligent cockpits from the perspective of user experience in product design, and avoid some low-level errors such as input-output disparity and having technology but no experience, ultimately redefining the intelligent cockpit’s all-scenario experience.

This article is a translation by ChatGPT of a Chinese report from 42HOW. If you have any questions about it, please email bd@42how.com.