Audi TT Goes For The Smartphone-Generation Design

Audi TT has been turning heads since it's inception in 1998. Currently in its third generation development mode, the Audi TT will be up for sale later this year. A new feature in this car will be a smartphone-inspired dashboard, rightly called as 'Virtual Cockpit'. This feature will rival other similar products such as Apple's CarPlay, Google’s Open Automotive Alliance and that of the Connected Car Consortium’s MirrorLink. Using Virtual Cockpit, Audi TT will do away with all the needles and gauges and dials and instead, display the information on a sleek LCD screen in HD.

Audi_tt_rs
Audi TT RS coupé (2009)
The Virtual Cockpit will be powered by twin quad-core CPUs, 4G data, touch control, natural-language voice recognition and search functionality; features usually present in a high-end smartphone. The 12.3-inch high-definition screen size will be 1,440 X 550 pixels and will have a refresh rate of 60 fps to make sure the screen does not flicker. Using Audi's trademark MMI touch control, the driver can zoom in or out and can scroll and select the maps or the menu.

2014-audi-tt-interior-virtual-cockpit
Virtual Cockpit
The application can operate in two modes, a traditional one which will have the tachometer on on side and the speedometer on the other. Between the two will be an area where maps, songs or other information of the car vitals could be displayed. In the other mode, the size of the dials would reduce to accommodate a more detailed view of maps or of the selected media file.

Google and Apple apps could be used with the Virtual Cockpit as well as shared apps (like Pandora, etc.) too are compatible. The Virtual Cockpit can be controlled by a wheel-mounted control panel or by a more traditional control present below the gear stick.

A worthwhile fact to mention is that the Audi TT concept took just a month for its design while this tech-y sister of hers took about 5 years for its design.

Source: #-Link-Snipped-#

Replies

  • Anoop Mathew
    Anoop Mathew
    Isn't it too small a display to look at while driving, and that too with such details???👀
  • Chaitanya Kukde
    Chaitanya Kukde
    Hmmm... with a screen size of 12.3 inches, the details won't be too cramped hopefully
  • Rajni Jain
    Rajni Jain
    Anoop Mathew
    Isn't it too small a display to look at while driving, and that too with such details???👀
    I was thinking on the same lines as well,

    For me the idea is really good but implementation could have been better.
    Would have loved following things in the same idea:

    - Touch screen to pinch it or zoom it.
    - make speed meters or other obstacles of maps as removable bubbles.
    - Voice directions.

    That will make it more usable.
  • Anoop Mathew
    Anoop Mathew
    Rajni Jain
    I was thinking on the same lines as well,

    For me the idea is really good but implementation could have been better.
    Would have loved following things in the same idea:

    - Touch screen to pinch it or zoom it.
    - make speed meters or other obstacles of maps as removable bubbles.
    - Voice directions.

    That will make it more usable.
    I think there should be two displays infact. This one should be as it is (I'm guessing it's in front of the steering wheel from the picture) and should display all the meters, temperature inside and outside the car, revs, gear currently on, etc. Another display should be there in the centre of the co driver and driver dashboard area with maps, music controls, etc - preferably with a bigger display. And also the driver should have some touch references in the steering wheel to pinch and zoom the map or control the audio or ac or even make a phone call by syncing with the phone. This would not distract him much from his driving, while both he and his co driver can play with the maps incase they're lost somewhere.
  • Chaitanya Kukde
    Chaitanya Kukde
    If one could turn the windshield into a giant touchscreen interface (Using tools like SixthSense by Pranav Mistry), that would be a new level of awesome...
  • Anoop Mathew
    Anoop Mathew
    Chaitanya Kukde
    If one could turn the windshield into a giant touchscreen interface (Using tools like SixthSense by Pranav Mistry), that would be a new level of awesome...
    Nope. You don't need to make the windshield a touchscreen - because that would be weird touching the windshield while driving. On the other hand, you just need to project the details and use the windshield (i.e. the front glass) as a screen and a touch feedback reference on your steering wheel as the controller/joystick/touch reference for moving the data.
  • Rajni Jain
    Rajni Jain
    Anoop Mathew
    Nope. You don't need to make the windshield a touchscreen - because that would be weird touching the windshield while driving. On the other hand, you just need to project the details and use the windshield (i.e. the front glass) as a screen and a touch feedback reference on your steering wheel as the controller/joystick/touch reference for moving the data.
    I am sure you must have some other plans (that you have not given here 😁) to make sure that touch / sixth sense screen (windshield) will not impact the driver's visibility... 😀
  • Anoop Mathew
    Anoop Mathew
    Rajni Jain
    I am sure you must have some other plans (that you have not given here 😁) to make sure that touch / sixth sense screen (windshield) will not impact the driver's visibility... 😀
    Yes, the projector technology is already in use now on a smaller size, and it does not affect the visibility to the driver. I've seen a video of it in Top Gear [Youtube]. 😏 Don't remember which video though!😒 Will post it here, along with the car model that uses it - if I come across that video again! 👍

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