The next big EV trend could be these special-edition E Ink dashboards and
I'm all for it
Date:
Thu, 09 Jan 2025 16:39:24 +0000
Description:
Continental believes that future EVs could benefit from Amazon Kindle-like displays covering the dashboard.
FULL STORY ======================================================================Continen tal showcased its E Ink Prism display at CES 2025 Unique application spans
the entire dashboard of a car Continental says Gen Z EV buyers want to
express their personality
This years CES 2025 show in Las Vegas has been positively laden with screen technology , be it mammoth head-up displays that fill a vehicles windscreen
or stretchable screen tech that could one day lead to a more immersive
at-home viewing experience.
But Continental, the famous tire-maker but also prolific vehicle technology innovator, showcased an altogether more design-led argument for introducing yet more screens to future vehicles.
Its Customizable Emotional Cockpit with E Ink Prism Display harnesses the power of ePaper and eReader technology but sees it grow to a massive 1.30m-long, four-centimeter (4.2ft x 1.6 inches) tall unit that spans the entire dashboard of a vehicle.
Designed to allow future EV owners to personalize and update their interiors with an array of stark black and white designs, Continental says that its E Ink Prism Display also has additional benefits for electric vehicles in so much as they dont require back-lighting and constant power.
Power is only required for the brief moment when the screen switches from one image to the next, which could help improve efficiency and lead to improved battery range.
During a demonstration at this years CES, the company showed how the selected content remained visible, even when a vehicle is parked, suggesting that it could also introduce the tech to other, outward-facing areas of a vehicle.
Continental says the first generation of its displays, which are more than capable of showing real-time driving information, such as remaining range or current speed, can only deliver imagery in the black and grey colorway, but
it says full color variants will be on offer in the near future. Analysis: a low-tech treat in a high-tech world (Image credit: Continental)
Lightweight, thin, durable and highly efficient, ePaper displays offer a uniquely low-tech retort to the current trend of packing automotive cockpits with more high definition touchscreens and head-up displays than your local branch of Best Buy.
Although currently limited to a greyscale output, future full color variants could provide a neat way to switch up a vehicles interior at the press of a button.
Granted, the look wont be for everyone, but I could see it working in something small, bold and funky, like Renaults recent R5 EV or even Minis iconic city car.
The fact it can display images, graphics or text elements permanently with minimal power requirement is also a boon for electric vehicles, where every opportunity to conserve energy is seen as a big plus.
Alas, the likelihood of us seeing it in this form on a production vehicle is slim, as I imagine many manufacturers would view an ePaper display as
somewhat of a budget alternative to the current raft of high-definition displays, thus potentially cheapening the brand image.
A shame, because its a neat aesthetic that would certainly stand out from the current crowd of often highly sanitized and homogenous car interiors. You might also like Honda's new Series 0 prototypes suggest it's back on exciting and pioneering EV form Goodbye, buttons BMW's new Panoramic iDrive system gives all its cars a massive head-up display with AI assistant The Sony
Afeela EV is finally here, but it could struggle to catch the Lucid Air here's why
======================================================================
Link to news story:
https://www.techradar.com/vehicle-tech/hybrid-electric-vehicles/the-next-big-e v-trend-could-be-these-special-edition-e-ink-dashboards-and-im-all-for-it
--- Mystic BBS v1.12 A47 (Linux/64)
* Origin: tqwNet Technology News (1337:1/100)