7 hot trends in in-vehicle displays in 2024

As screens are used more and more in cars, the shape of the screen is no longer limited to inherent shapes such as square and rectangle. In order to fit the application location of the screen in the car, special-shaped screens such as holes have appeared and are widely used.

With the combination of the DMS driver detection system and the instrument panel, special-shaped screens such as hole-punch screens appear.

With the introduction of streaming media rearview mirrors and CMS exterior rearview mirrors, such screens will become more common. For example, Audi’s CMS screen is a special-shaped screen integrated on the door panel.

As a new generation of display technology, foldable and rollable displays have received widespread attention in the market in recent years. Previously, this technology was widely used in smartphones. With the rapid development of the smart car market, traditional cockpits can no longer meet the needs of the market and consumers, so various car companies have followed suit and started to learn from smartphone manufacturers, conceiving many "new scenarios" for automotive applications, and applying foldable and rollable display technology to the on-board display of car cockpits.

The car's folding and curling display can be adjusted according to driving conditions and usage purposes, and can significantly improve the vehicle's interior design and minimize installation space by minimizing the volume.

With the release of Roewe RX5 last year and Zeekr X this year, the design of the sliding screen has been brought up again, further breaking the traditional car cockpit that focuses on driver interaction, using the sliding screen as a carrier to break through the interactive dimension, and the left and right sliding smart screen design has become a highlight of the interior.

The sliding screen not only breaks through the spatial barrier between the traditional screen and the instrument, but also enables the driver and the front passenger to share the screen, which not only prevents interference between functions and entertainment, but also enables information sharing, making communication more convenient and closer to the interactive logic and development trend of smart car cockpits.

The changes in various forms make the car interior more technological. In addition to the left and right sliding display screen, there is also up and down lifting display technology. The flexible appearance can be better integrated into the car interior. With the car system, it can realize automatic lifting in various modes. Similarly, it can also be applied to the instrument, co-pilot, back row, armrests and other positions, providing more solutions for creating the third space of the smart cockpit.

Although large size, high resolution, and curved and special-shaped designs have become important factors in attracting users' attention and creating highlights for cars, the increasing number of operating functions, complex and overloaded information, and the light from the car screen still pose a risk to driving safety.

The emergence of hidden display, a high-tech in-vehicle display, solves the above problems. Hidden display is a display technology that makes the screen "disappear". All screen display interfaces and interactive functions are hidden by the system. When you need the screen display to operate, just wake up the screen and it will light up. When you don't need the screen display during normal driving, the display will automatically turn off and blend into the surrounding interior.

The technical principle of invisible display technology is to use LCD as the light source for displaying information, and let the light source pass through the special translucent decorative material attached to the glass cover to present the final "invisible display" effect. At present, since hidden display screens have higher requirements for brightness and contrast, they are more suitable for the increasingly widely used Mini LED backlight products.

The advent of invisible display technology provides a new solution to reduce driver distraction and a new design concept for future car interior styles. The application of invisible display technology solutions is not limited to the central control display, but can be extended to invisible door displays to achieve an integrated display effect and enhance user experience.

In recent years, with the explosion of industries such as the metaverse and enhanced display, OEMs have put forward various requirements for in-car interaction, entertainment, office, navigation, etc. However, traditional displays are opaque and cannot be used in the limited space in the car. The best solution is to use the glass that accounts for nearly 60% of the car body and turn it into a transparent display. Judging from the various technologies at major exhibitions in recent years, transparent display technology can be said to be a new generation of human-computer interaction HMI solution that combines science fiction with reality.

Transparent display can be expressed in various forms. The popular HUD head-up display, window display, instrument aerial imaging/medium-free instrument, etc. can actually be considered as transparent display. These display technologies include DLP projection, OLED or MicroLED solutions, holographic solutions, etc.