AutoConnect_Magazine February 2016 | Page 19

the future of infotainment have possibly designed the most obvious of technologies, especially considering the number of touchscreens in cars nowadays – haptic feedback.

Touchscreens are a real bugbear of mine; they work fine on your phone because you're devoting all your attention to it, but when you're driving you need to look at the road so you need to know where your fingers are, and if you are pressing buttons, otherwise you may be tempted to look down. That could be overly distracting and dangerous.

When touched, the display responds with haptic elements as well as visual and acoustic signals. Drivers can feel the keys on the touchscreen without looking thanks to variances in the surface structures – and without immediately triggering an action. Rough, smooth, or even patterned surfaces stand for different buttons and functions. The virtual button is not activated until the operator presses it more firmly. Users have the feeling that they are pressing a normal, mechanical button. In appearance, however, the touchscreen with haptic elements does not differ from a conventional display, helping smooth the design.

Lastly, Nvidia, brought its Drive PX 2 autonomous vehicle super computer to the show, (see pages 14-15), highlighting how powerful processor technology is going to help take the stress out of driving. Imagine a system that can learn how to drive, so every time you're out on the road in your autonomous car, it gets smoother. Volvo will be using the technology in 100 fully autonomous XC90 SUVs on the streets of Gothenburg soon, and interest in the system is huge, with the cirm being contacted by numerous car companies and suppliers all apparently eager to use the system.