Resource Tag: EV

Altia ON: 2025 Dodge Charger Daytona EV

Posted on by Cheryl Falk

Automotive companies around the world count on Altia to drive the graphics of their most advanced cockpit displays. Here is a shining example of the style and innovation that Altia can deliver—the 2024 Dodge Charger Daytona.

EV meets muscle car in one stunning combination of throwback and high tech in the 2024 Dodge Charger Daytona. This car is a testament to Dodge’s commitment to electrification as well as a showcase of their latest brand DNA.

At the heart of the Charger’s cockpit is a 10.25-inch digital instrument cluster, with an available upgrade to a 16-inch screen. Engineers have designed the system to allow for multiple display configurations, ensuring that drivers can tailor the information to their specific needs. This flexibility is crucial for performance driving, where quick access to critical data can make all the difference. Whether it’s performance metrics, navigation or vehicle status, the cluster provides a seamless and intuitive interface.

The instrument cluster is seamlessly integrated with the Uconnect 5 infotainment system2. This integration allows for a unified user experience, where information can be easily transferred between the central display and the instrument cluster. For instance, navigation prompts can be mirrored on the instrument cluster, allowing drivers to keep their eyes on the road.

As the automotive industry continues to evolve, the Dodge Charger Daytona stands out as a beacon of innovation, pushing the boundaries of what is possible in vehicle instrumentation. It’s an exciting time to be involved in automotive design, and the designers and developers at Dodge are leading the charge.

Ready to supercharge your next HMI? Altia gets your high-performance, brand-defining GUIs on the road in cars like this and over 100 million others around the world.

Altia: The Complete HMI Platform for Automotive Cockpit Displays

Posted on by Cheryl Falk

As the automotive industry moves closer and closer to fully autonomous, even lower end vehicles are evolving into rolling computers—with ever-increasing interconnectivity and complexity in the vehicle cockpit. Car buyers now expect to be connected to the outside world—and OEMs are responding to their requirements. It is estimated that by 2030, 95% of all new vehicles will incorporate intermediate or advanced infotainment, telematics and V2X capabilities to communicate between vehicles, users and infrastructure.

With these dramatic shifts in technologies from more mechanical and analog controls to those that are partially or fully digital, automotive OEMs are challenged with anticipating how customers interact with their vehicles, namely through the human-machine interface (HMI).

The HMI acts as a hub of the wheel for the vehicle cockpit’s connected user experience, integrating the spokes that provide information to the driver while sending commands to the various systems both inside and outside the car. The considerable shift toward electrification and autonomous vehicles has resulted in new regulatory requirements. These requirements have compelled OEMs and suppliers to invest more R&D into user interface hardware and software lifecycles and integration, whether their digital cockpits include a multitude of dedicated displays in a single vehicle to just a single in-dash touchscreen.

But the simplicity of a well-architected UI masks great complexity. Cockpit software design includes many considerations, such as how to integrate multiple compute domains and vehicle applications across varying operating systems. Customers have grown accustomed to smartphones being at their side—so how can OEMs keep them connected to their communication and entertainment while adhering to regulations for driver safety and attention? How can OEMs maintain brand continuity between native HMI screens, multiple connectivity solutions and those of the passengers’ personal devices? This is a complex challenge encompassing a vast number of varying requirements, especially given the increase in autonomy. OEMs can embrace these challenges by leveraging a production-proven platform to bring this all together efficiently.

Meeting OEM Challenges with Proven Innovation

Altia delivers a single, comprehensive platform to meet OEM’s cockpit software challenges and the needs and expectations of their customers. They provide a complete end-to-end cockpit software solution for OEMs by combining the best design tools, advanced technology, customization capabilities and expertise within one unified platform.

Altia has helped some of the largest OEMs create custom HMIs in various vehicles as well as develop and deploy their entire software stack—from sedans, SUVs, semis and motorcycles to electric construction-agriculture equipment and everything in between. The integration of Altia’s powerful features and hardware flexibility in over 100 million production vehicles on the road have been shaping the industry. Altia’s software solution is at the heart of over 375 vehicle dashboards for the upcoming generation.

A Comprehensive Collection of Tools and Expert Service

Altia’s cockpit software platform sets the standard for designing, developing and deploying innovative, first-class automotive user experience. The platform enables display design and deployment on any screen within a car, including instrument clusters, HUDs, infotainment displays, passenger displays and rear passenger entertainment systems. No matter how grand and challenging your vision is, Altia can enable a seamless look and feel in your vehicle cockpits to provide an immersive experience that is representative of the brands across your fleet of vehicles. By reusing the core of your work, Altia enables you to keep design cost-efficient while enabling endless opportunities to differentiate. Providing the tools and expert support you need to bring your UI from concept to production quickly and efficiently, Altia’s HMI development platform saves time and reduces production costs.

Altia Advantages for Automotive

  • Hypervisor operations — HMI cockpit operates on both sides of your hypervisor
  • Code generation — Quick conversion of HMI prototypes and graphics to deployable graphics code across a wide range of hardware
  • Integration and display management — Guidance on how to manage and integrate cockpit real estate to create cohesive and intuitive signature UIs for customers while maintaining brand identity
  • Head-up display expertise — Best-in-class HUDs integration to show system information and advanced driver-assist system (ADAS) warnings to keep drivers’ eyes on the road
  • Automated testing solutions — Reduction in time-to-market HMI testing costs, minimizes human error

Integrations

Altia’s cockpit HMI platform can seamlessly integrate the following services and applications into your displays:

  • Android Auto and Apple CarPlay
  • Third-party mapping programs
  • ADAS
  • Media players
  • Telematics units
  • Automotive infrastructure integrations via Vehicle-to-Everything (V2X)

Altia Software Tools and Services Support Every Step of Your HMI Process

With the increasing complexity in the automotive world and increasing demand for OEMs to pull user experience and data ownership in-house, it’s easy to get overwhelmed with an approach to managing it all. Altia is here to bring all the pieces together and help OEMs to realize their automotive user experience goals. Altia guides OEMs through designing, developing and deploying their custom automotive cockpits.

Altia’s complete automotive software platform supports every step of the development process, from concept design through delivery. Altia automotive solutions enable OEMs to meet their digital cockpit goals today and in the future. Altia understands these system complexities and has the proven tools to help you with your automotive software challenges.

Ready to start your automotive cockpit development journey? Altia delivers the expertise, software and services to guide you throughout the process to meet your needs and realize your goals. We would love to hear about your project and how we can help you get it on the road.

Visit www.altia.com/get-started.

Altia ON: 2025 Cadillac ESCALADE IQ

Posted on by Cheryl Falk

The 2025 Cadillac Escalade IQ is an innovative electric SUV that will combine top-tier luxury with cutting-edge technology. GM relies on Altia for getting its most advanced, intuitive graphics into production – and this cutting-edge redesign of Cadillac’s flagship turned EV will definitely deliver. 

Here’s what we’re most excited about in the Escalade IQ. 

The cockpit interface is incredibly user-friendly, with intuitive menus and rapid responses. Multi-tasking is a breeze, allowing drivers to simultaneously view navigation, play music and monitor vehicle stats without switching screens. Voice recognition, augmented reality navigation and integration with popular apps ensure that drivers are safe, comfortable and connected.

The dash is composed of a sprawling, curved pillar-to-pillar 55″ total diagonal LED display powered by a Snapdragon Cockpit platform from Qualcomm Technologies. Spanning the entire front row, it provides a stunning visual experience for driver and passenger. This massive display is segmented to serve the different needs of front seat passengers—with 35″ dedicated to the driver and 20″ dedicated to the passenger. The passenger side of the display is polarized—making it less visible to the driver thus reducing distraction and clearing the regulatory hurdle that will let passengers stream video or surf the internet while the electric Escalade is on the move. The display can be customized with different themes, widgets and apps, including voice-controlled services like Google Assistant, Google Maps and Google Play.

Beneath the 55″ screen combination sits an 11″ touchscreen where driver and passenger can access five-zone climate controls, ambient lighting and even the doors (if equipped with the power open-and-close feature).

That cool, connected experience of the Cadillac Escalade IQ extends to the back seat. For models with the Executive Seating package, second-row passengers get two 12.6″ personal screens plus a rear command center screen to control comfort, lighting and more.

Designing, developing and deploying this kind of brand-defining innovation in cockpit displays is exactly what Altia does. We work with automotive OEMs and Tier 1s all over the world—including General Motors—to deliver first class cockpit experiences for production vehicles. Let us help you with your next generation production program. Visit www.altia.com/get-started today.

Enhancing EV Charging Station UX and Why It Matters

Posted on by Cheryl Falk

If electric vehicles, or EVs, are the future of the automotive industry, are charging stations the new gas stations? It certainly seems that way, which means the EV charging market is primed for explosive growth. The rise of electric vehicles is creating an increased demand for charging stations. Every opportunity to differentiate a charging station can help businesses capture market share. One such opportunity is in the EV charging station display.

EV Charging Stations by the Numbers

As automotive companies continue to roll out new electric vehicles, the discussion turns to how those vehicles can stay charged:

  • Annual EV sales grew 19,000% in the United States between 2010 and 2020. As technology and public opinion evolve, the electric vehicle market is growing exponentially. It’s projected that there will be as many as 35 million EVs on the road by 2030 in the United States alone.
  • There are already an estimated 53,000 public charging stations in the United States, according to Porch Research.
  • The International Council on Clean Transportation predicts massive growth in the U.S. charging infrastructure between now and 2030.
  • The growth isn’t limited to the United States. Global Newswire forecasts a compound annual growth rate of 44% for the electric vehicle charging station market until 2027.

Legacy automotive brands are riding the EV wave instead of trying to swim against it. General Motors CEO, Mary Barra, has set a goal for the company to sell only electric passenger vehicles by 2035. All of those vehicles will need to be charged. Investors, businesses and even governments are pouring resources into their efforts to build the charging stations that will power the electric future of the automotive industry.

Defining and Designing the Charging Station

Thanks in part to a $135 billion commitment from the U.S. government, the United States should have a national network of 500,000 EV charging stations by 2030. Because these charging stations are public, they’ll have to accommodate all the different types of vehicles. Every vehicle can accept a different power level from the electric vehicle supply equipment (EVSE).

When a driver plugs in an electric vehicle, there is a brief communication between the EV and EVSE before charging begins. The car requests information about how much power the charging station can deliver. The EVSE returns an answer. Then the car requests the maximum power the charger can provide, and the vehicle can accept. From there, the car controls the voltage and will continue to charge until it’s full.

What Do Charging Stations Display?

There are three different levels of electric vehicle charging with various display functionality:

  1. Level 1 120V EV home chargers typically don’t have displays.
  2. Level 2 chargers, from 240V for home or 208V for commercial chargers, generally have simple displays. The charger might show the time to completion and display the battery level with an animated charge progress bar.
  3. Level 3 480V EV chargers, including Direct Current Fast Charging (DCFC) and the Tesla Supercharger, offer the most advanced displays. If the EVSE can charge more than one vehicle at a time, it might have multiple displays. These chargers typically have all the EV charging station display features from Level 2, plus a video screen for news headlines and ads.

As more users begin to use charging stations, expectations are rising. Those who wish to win EVSE market share must develop competitive EV charging station displays.

What Drivers and Passengers Need from Charging Stations

EV charging stations aren’t just the gas stations of the future. They’re also travel lodges of the future. People might spend significant time at these stations while waiting for their vehicles to charge. Not all EV charging stations are built the same, and the differences matter more for extended visits. It’s critical to create the right user experience, which means considering the following:

Prioritize Ease of Use

Early adopters have already had EVs for years, and now the early majority is starting to embrace electric vehicles. Social reasons for going electric are even encouraging some people who typically don’t adopt technology, especially quickly. As a result, new users of all ages and comfort levels will be interacting with EV charging station displays.

To accommodate a diverse user base, an EV charging station display must be user-friendly and intuitive. Simple screens should provide clear instructions. Touch screens should enable easy navigation. There must be convenient payment options and a clear path to payment.

Users want to know where they are in the charging process and take control of the charging experience as much as possible. Some users prefer to monitor and manage the experience via a mobile app or the in-vehicle interface, so the EVSE must be compatible with other technologies. Diagnostic information, troubleshooting workflows and live support help guide the user to a satisfying experience.

Ensure High Visibility

The EV charging station display will likely be outside, requiring it to be visible in all conditions. It will need the right type of screen to make the charging status visible to the user. When designing an EVSE, it can be helpful to generate code and test it in various real-world scenarios—including sun, shade, partial light and full darkness.

Performance Matters

An EVSE has to offer flexible charging speeds to accommodate different types of EVs as well as user preferences. Then there’s the performance of the EV charging station display itself. When the user wants to modify the charging performance, the interface needs to be responsive enough to make that happen. GUI code that has been optimized for the display hardware makes graphics perform more smoothly. Testing that code on production-intent hardware ensures that the display is adequately responsive to touch.

Inform and Entertain

The U.S. Department of Transportation reports that a fully electric vehicle might take 4-10 hours to gain a full charge from Level 2 charging. This speed makes it more suitable for locations where the driver spends significant time, like home or the workplace. DC Fast Charging (DCFC) is more ideal for high-traffic areas and road trip stops. DCFC might get an electric vehicle to an 80% charge in just 20 minutes to one hour.

In any case, drivers and passengers often have time to kill at the charging station. OTA updates enable a variety of informational and entertaining content. Drivers and passengers may wish to play audio and video without using battery power from their vehicles or devices. Alternatively, users might want quick information about area restaurants, lodging or entertainment.

The EVSE display might also show stats and graphics that gamify the experience. Guest books and driver networks inspire engagement. They also give drivers additional reasons to choose one charging station over another. Capturing a user base also creates opportunities to sell ads, including offers for nearby businesses.

Choose the Right Hardware

Selecting versatile hardware will give the EV charging station greater compatibility and connectivity. The hardware has to be able to support the graphical features of the GUI and run at top performance. At the same time, identifying favorable target hardware goes a long way toward controlling costs.

Getting Started with EV Charging Station Display Design

Ultimately, users have a significant say in which businesses will win market share within the growing EV charging industry. A thoughtful display can enhance the experience of using public charging stations and Level 2 home charging. For more information, visit www.altia.com.

 

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