Carmakers used to one-up each other’s engines, but it seems like these days all they’re competing for are screen sizes. Infotainment displays are reaching upwards of 15 inches across, and heck – Mercedes even fills up its entire dashboard with screens on its Hyperscreen set-up.
The big-screens’ aesthetic charm is arguable, but to us, it’s just a usability nightmare – especially when you’re actually driving, like what a car is supposed to do. Fortunately, though, it seems that this weird obsession with big screens might just be ending soon – at least according to BMW i interior designer, Matthias Junghanns.
The statement came from a livestreamed roundtable hosted by Car Design News, discussing the luxury car interiors of the future with some of the brightest minds in the industry – in which, a question from the audience was highlighted: “Today, premium luxury and UX (user experience) seems to be synonymous with the big screen, will it still be the case tomorrow?” He added, “Have we reached Peak Screen?”
Junghanns responded, with another question: “Is it the big screen that counts?”, adding that he personally believes that the trend will be left behind, “sooner or later”. As for what’s coming in the future, the designer imagines a cabin where “all the intelligence of your car [is] at your fingertips, but interfaces that [only] appear when you need them, and when you want them.”
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Polestar‘s interior design manager, Conny Blommé concurred with the view: “Everything has its peak, and probably screens have. Most of the time, you’re travelling in a car, and you enjoy the view more than you enjoy the screens.”
Sure, two designers definitely don’t represent the entire industry. But at the very least, it’s indicative that not everyone in the car world share the design ethos of “big screen or bust”. Do you agree with the two designers? Let us know in the comments section below.
