Product: Altia Engineering Services

General Motors Extends Altia Software and Engineering Services to Deploy Digital Cockpit Displays for All Electric Chevy Silverado EV

Posted on by Cheryl Falk

Altia previously announced General Motors’ use of Altia to design and deploy the massive integrated cockpit experience for the cutting-edge Cadillac LYRIQ. Today, Altia is proud to share that General Motors will continue to leverage Altia’s human-machine interface (HMI) solutions for the 2024 Chevy Silverado EV, the brand’s ground-breaking fully electric truck.

“Altia is proud of our partnership with GM’s Design Team—and we’re excited to be a part of their evolution toward an all-electric fleet,” stated Mike Juran, Altia CEO. “General Motors is leveraging Altia’s software with an inventive approach that enables extensive configurability of their cockpit graphic assets for the LYRIQ, the Silverado EV and beyond. This speaks to GM’s commitment to deliver a best-in-class experience for drivers and passengers across all its brands.”

The Ultium™ battery-powered truck will be offered with two variations of a gorgeous digital dashboard—the standard 11.0-inch infotainment touchscreen and 8.0-inch digital instrument cluster or the upgraded 17.0-inch infotainment screen and 11.0-inch instrument cluster. Both systems include rich 3D animations and driver-focused screens with intuitive access to a full range of features. These screens are highly reconfigurable to suit the preferences of driver and passenger and can be continually personalized and customized thanks to Ultifi™, GM’s end-to-end software platform that will enable over-the-air updates of software-defined features, apps and services to customers. Combined with Super Cruise1, General Motors’ hands-free driver assistance technology for compatible roads, GM’s brilliant design teams are continuing to build a legacy of innovation.

“Altia enables our design teams to deliver a consistent, top-quality look and feel for our cockpit displays that truly represent the General Motors brand,” stated Daryl Carr, Senior Manager, GM User Interface Services. “As we continue to roll out new models in our fleet of electric vehicles, Altia will be a key contributor and solution for these cutting-edge production programs.”

Altia’s HMI development software—which includes Altia Design, a WYSIWYG graphics editor, and Altia DeepScreen, an automatic code generator—is used by automotive OEMS and Tier 1 suppliers across the world to deliver high impact, memory-efficient graphical displays for instrument clusters, head-up displays, in-vehicle infotainment systems and full integrated cockpit applications. With powerful features for advanced 3D, multi-language and functional safety, along with a Professional Engineering Services Group that is available to support any and all phases of HMI development, Altia helps companies get first class HMIs to market efficiently.

1Always pay attention while driving and when using Super Cruise. Do not use a handheld device. Visit https://www.chevrolet.com/electric/super-cruise for full details.

About Altia

Altia is a software company that provides graphical user interface design and development tools that can be used from concept to final production code. Our GUI editor, Altia Design, offers development teams the capability to implement a model-based development process enabling clear team communication and accelerated user interface development. Our code generator, Altia DeepScreen, supports a vast range of low- to high-powered processors from a variety of industry-leading silicon providers. Altia generates pure C source code that is optimized to take full advantage of hardware resources. Graphics code generated by Altia is driving millions of displays worldwide – from automotive instrument clusters, HUDs and radios to thermostats, washing machines and medical devices. Our mission is to get the best automotive, medical and consumer interfaces into production in the shortest time on the lowest cost hardware.

Altia was founded in 1991. Its customers include automotive OEMs and Tier 1s like Continental Automotive, Denso, Fiat Chrysler Automobiles, Ford Motor Company, General Motors, Honda, Renault, Magneti Marelli, Nippon Seiki, Valeo, Visteon and more – plus leading consumer device manufacturers like Electrolux, Whirlpool, NordicTrack and many others.

For more information about Altia, visit www.altia.com or email [email protected].

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Altia Provides Major Surgical Device Maker with Turnkey Design, Saving Time and Resources

“This is what this product always wanted to look like!”

—Device Maker

For over 125 years, a division of one of the world’s largest medical products companies has been meeting the needs of surgical hospitals with innovative products. Today, assisted by the tools and services provided by Altia, it continues to lead the profession in the design and manufacture of medical devices that guide surgeons and their teams through highly complex procedures.

A Search for Solutions

Recently the manufacturer was designing an upgrade for one of its most successful camera-driven surgical visualization systems. Executing a new GUI (Graphic User Interface), however, was proving to be problematic due to the limitations of the design software recommended by a sister division. According to the senior principal software engineer on the project, the time crunch for development, combined with the difficulties using the recommended software, compelled him to try an alternative package – Altia GUI development software.

“We had licenses for Altia Design and Altia DeepScreen available to us through our company, so we gave it a try. It quickly became clear that it was superior to the software given to us by our sister division,” he said.

The device manufacturer was still constrained by engineering resources. “That’s when Altia asked, ‘How about if our services team steps in to help you meet your first design milestone?”

As Jeff Stewart, Altia’s Director of Field Application Engineering, recalled, there was a pause on the other end of the line.

“He said, ‘Really? You could just build it for me turnkey?’ I told him we could, and that’s where things went.”

Altia Earns Customer Trust

Stewart arranged a first meeting with Altia’s Professional Engineering Services Group. The customer explained that the existing monochrome GUI had been hand-coded internally and was becoming difficult to maintain. Any upgrade would have to run on the product’s existing Linux platform. Together, the two companies began working on how the new interface would function.

“From the beginning we had a good relationship,” noted Brett Stein, Vice President of Engineering Services. “The customer had its software lead, design lead and one of their senior software engineers on every call. We had our project and tech lead and probably several other engineers on each of those calls as well. When everyone collaborates on a regular basis, good things result.”

Once Altia met the first milestone, the customer recognized the value of collaborating with Altia’s team on this project – time-savings, expertise, overall quality of the interface and more. They asked Altia Services to complete the rest of the project. Backed by this team of UI experts, the customer realized they could deliver far beyond their initial plan. Therefore, they began to expand on what was initially intended to be only five screens to include fresh ideas and feature improvements not initially planned for the product.

“The final program involved nearly 50 screens in all,” Stein stated. “It included draggable, scrollable lists and menus. The GUI is designed to look and feel like a smartphone interface while running on a very low power platform. Our team is well-versed in this kind of work. In fact, this is what our company is known for in a variety of industries. So, while it was a challenge, the project progressed well.”

For any medical instrument, the UX has to be right. “The position of buttons and controls has to be intuitive,” continued Stein. “Operators can’t afford to make a wrong choice, especially with gloved fingers. The visual layout must also communicate instantly, so technicians are making the right choice every time.”

“The GUI is designed to look and feel like a smartphone interface while running on a very low power platform. Our team is well-versed in this kind of work. In fact, this is what our company is known for in a variety of industries. So, while it was a challenge, the project progressed well.”

Brett Stein, Vice President of Engineering Services

The manufacturer’s principal engineer recalled how Altia even advised on language support. “One of Altia’s services team is a native Chinese language speaker. She told us, ‘I believe some of your existing translations are wrong.’ It turned out she was correct, so we fixed them.” He continued, “That was really cool, as it’s not the norm to have that level of collaboration when we do business with other vendors.”

The trust and transparency Altia earned went a long way, in the engineer’s mind. “I have a very junior associate, straight out of college, working with me on the software. Because of the comfort level I felt with Altia, I was able to let him be the liaison with Altia’s services team. I would not have had that confidence if it were some other supplier I didn’t trust.”

On Budget, Ahead of Schedule

Despite the aggressive timeline, Altia was able to complete the revamp of the original monochrome GUI with an updated, full color and highly intuitive design. The end product was not only more advanced, but on budget and ahead of schedule. Furthermore, due to Altia’s ability to generate code for the device’s microprocessor target directly from the design using Altia DeepScreen, the GUI worked correctly the first time, without refinements.

“We showed how fast and efficient we could be. In the past the customer would outsource software and they would spend months reworking what they got back,” said Stewart. “What they got from us was a functional product.”

The customer noted that Altia allowed them to effectively extend their internal resources for this project. “Our engineering team has a lot on its plate. Altia gave us extra productivity without extra head count,” the principal engineer stated. “We were able to concentrate on the business logic while gaining a polished user experience.”

Altia’s Engineering Services Group enabled the customer to complete its GUI in half the time that its sister division was investing in a GUI for a similar product. Now, that sister division is interested in Altia as well.

“ Our engineering team has a lot on its plate. Altia gave us extra productivity without extra head count,” the principal engineer stated. “We were able to concentrate on the business logic while gaining a polished user experience.”

“I felt I was working with a team just down the hallway,” said the manufacturer’s senior principal software engineer. “This is the kind of relationship we look for. Our users are thrilled. With Altia’s help, this is what this product always wanted to look like.”

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