Automotive display patents

 

  If you look at the interiors of recent cars, there are a lot of really fancy and cool interior looks. In particular, the ever-evolving instrument panel, or display, is particularly eye-catching. It is said that car displays so far have gone beyond simply showing speed and information and have now developed into multi-platforms where OTT and games can also be enjoyed.

  In this issue, we will learn about automotive displays and its patented technologies which has been rapidly developing.

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Conventional car display

  In fact, I think it would be more correct to call it an instrument panel rather than a display in the beginning. The instrument panel, which originated in 1910 when Ford Motor Company adopted the speedometer as a standard feature, contained only essential information such as speed, fuel gauge, and turn signals, but as automobile technology gradually developed, it continued to evolve into an analog instrument panel.

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Early automobile instrument panel

  Afterwards, in the 1980s, analog instrument panel evolved further. A digital instrument panel filled with digital numbers has appeared on the LCD window. Thanks to the LCD window, the driver's visibility has improved and a variety of information are able to be provided, from the possible driving distance to interior and exterior temperatures, and the radio channel being played.

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Digital LCD instrument panel

Automotive display evolved into a multi-platform

  Automotive dashboards and displays, which used to provide only simple information, have also improved significantly with technological advancements. From full LCD to flexible displays that were only seen on TV, automobile dashboards have now been completely digitized and have evolved into a multi-platform where you can enjoy a variety of content such as OTT and games. In particular, Tesla is equipped with a large display similar to the iPad, delivering detailed information and providing aesthetics at the same time. In addition, other automakers are actively using the improved quality of displays to create an environment where people can enjoy entertainment content by installing subscription-based OTT channels such as Netflix and YouTube.

(Left) Tesla (source: www.tesla.com/ko kr)
(Right) BMW (source: www.bmw.co.kr)

  In the past, you had to go to a drive-in theater far away to watch a movie in your car, but now we live in an era where a drive-in theater can be found wherever you go.

What kind of technologies have been filed for automotive displays?

AR is in my car - HUD

  AR, or augmented reality, is a computer graphics technique that makes virtual objects or information look like objects. Surprisingly, the first place to adopt this AR was military weapon systems. AR was applied to provide necessary information to pilots, such as driving path, radar in all directions, and enemy detection, in the form of an instrument panel on the pilot window of fighter jets and tanks.

HUD of a fighter jet 
(source: Namu Wiki)

  But now AR has become an essential feature of cars. In cars, it is called ‘Head Up Display’, or HUD. It outputs navigation information on the driver's front window and displays various information such as rear cross-traffic alert and lane departure alert.

Car's HUD running
(source: hankyung.com)

Let’s take a look at Hyundai Mobis’ HUD technology.

  This device is a combiner type, which is an early version of HUD. There is a tilt at the bottom of the device to raise the combiner, so when you start the car, the display goes up and necessary information appears, and when you turn off the car, the display goes down again.

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KR10-2018-0044306, Head up display apparatus for vehicle

  Hyundai Motor Company also developed a later version of HUD. They said that information is reflected on the windshield of the car without a separate window as before. It’s made it increasing driver’s convenience and the amount of transmitted information.

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KR10-2021-0178096, Head up display apparatus

The entire dashboard becomes a display.

  All of the displays introduced earlier were only applied to the driver's seat or the center of the vehicle. Nowadays, we live in a world where the entire front dashboard of a vehicle is used as a display.

 Let’s take a look at the display developed by LG Display.

  This technology is a bar-type display that extends from the instrument panel all the way to the front passenger seat. This technology is said to provide real-time information to the driver and the passengers next to the driver, ranging from basic driving information to various driving assistance systems such as forward obstacle shooting, navigation, and remote user terminals.

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KR10-2015-0093846, Bar type display apparatus and vehicle comprising the same

  In fact, you can see that the entire front is filled with this expansive bar-type display at the recently released ‘Lincoln Nautilus 2024’.

Lincoln Nautilus with bar-type display
(source: www.lincoln-korea.com/vehicles/nautilus)

Now, driver can extend and reduce the displays.

  We’ve seen flexible displays in TVs and smartphones, but it’s also possible in cars. Until now, vehicle displays were fixed, but now drivers can extend and reduce them by themselves.

 LG Electronics developed a flexible display. This display protrudes above the dashboard during driving, and the driver can lower the display themselves if the driver’s sight is obstructed or uncomfortable while driving.

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KR10-2020-0002706, Display apparatus vehicle

  The full stretched screen can be used for watching videos or navigation, and by folding or lowering the screen, the bottom can be used as a keyboard and the top can be a screen, making it even more useful in limited car space.

  Hyundai Mobis has also developed a rollable display that can be easily unrolled and rolled up. They said that this technology is able to effectively prevent the screen from bending due to the driver's mistouch or vehicle vibration even when the screen is unwinded from the display roller.

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KR10-2021-0098831, Rollable display device for vehicle

How far will automotive displays develop?

  This time, we learned about the patented technologies of automotive displays. With the advancement of display technology, we have now become a world where we can enjoy various entertainment contents even in cars. Now, it would be a good idea to continue watching the evolution of automotive displays, which are expected to be the most spectacular and notable development in the automotive electronic parts industry.