Skip to main content

The trend in digital instrument displays

Innovative instrument clusters and head-up displays are becoming increasingly popular amongst OEMs and customers alike, according to IMS Research’s new automotive study, “The World Market for Automotive OEM Electronic Systems – 2011 Edition.”
March 23, 2012 Read time: 2 mins
Innovative instrument clusters and head-up displays are becoming increasingly popular amongst OEMs and customers alike, according to 591 IMS Research’s new automotive study, “The World Market for Automotive OEM Electronic Systems – 2011 Edition.”

By 2018, it is forecast that almost seven million cars will have purely digital instrument clusters and over 3.5 million cars will have a head-up display, with combined revenues reaching US$2.5 billion. Although purely digital instrument clusters are becoming more popular, hybrid instrument clusters currently make up 90% of the market.

“OEMs are slowly moving towards purely digital instrument clusters for a few reasons” explains IMS Research automotive market analyst, Ben Scott. “With most OEMs releasing an HEV/EV in the near future, a reconfigurable digital instrument is very appealing. Information on battery charge, distance until next charge, and other driver information can easily be displayed.”

Another driving force is consumer trends. Smartphone and tablet PC ownership is increasing and there is the opportunity to integrate these devices to drive configurable instrument clusters. In a recent IMS Research consumer survey, ‘Connected Head Units – Consumer Survey – 2011 Edition’, it was found that the majority of respondents would prefer to use their smartphone as the HMI for infotainment.  However, for both instrumentation and infotainment there will be definite safety implications involved and serious consideration should be given as to how these devices will display information.

Head-up displays (HUDs) have, for a long time, been associated with the premium end of the car market, but this could change. “We should see HUDs penetrating the middle car segment market in the near future”, Scott adds. HUDs are becoming less expensive, partly because of new head-up display technology entering the market from companies like 4276 Nippon Seiki and 764 Johnson Controls.

Johnson Contols is offering a ‘combiner head-up display’ which projects information on to a fully integrated transparent screen in the driver’s field of vision. “This approach to the HUD is both cost effective and will help bring this technology to the volume car segments,” said Scott.

For more information on companies in this article

Related Content

  • Asia Pacific expected to lead EV charging station market by 2022
    April 1, 2016
    According to Markets and Markets’ latest market research report, the electric vehicle (EV) charging station market is estimated to reach US$12.61 Billion by 2022, at a CAGR of 29.8 per cent between 2016 and 2022. Factors which are driving the electric vehicle charging stations market include government subsidies and incentives, increasing use of EVs, and the growing need to reduce carbon emissions. The US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) categorises battery electric vehicles (BEVs) as zero-emissi
  • Urban utility
    July 24, 2012
    Steve Lane, Commercial Director at Triteq, talks about the successful deployment of ZigBee in Barcelona where a low-cost wireless metropolitan network for location and citizen services was established. The project, he says, demonstrates ZigBee's effectiveness as an urban communications system solution ZigBee is based on the IEEE radio frequency standard 802.15.4 - 2006 for Wireless Personal Area Networks (WPAN), which provides a license-free radio frequency for a flexible, robust private wireless network. Z
  • Truck digitisation and tech developments in freight ‘will boost Europe’s CV telematics market’
    January 11, 2017
    According to research by Frost & Sullivan, growth opportunities are strengthening in the commercial vehicle (CV) telematics market in Europe with the imminent arrival of value-added services such as video-based safety solutions, mobile base on-demand freight exchange platforms, and field service management solutions. While penetration of fleet management services (FMS) in large and medium fleets is relatively high, addressing challenges such as awareness, adequate training, and better business cases are key
  • V2V capabilities to feature in over half of cars sold by 2022, say researchers
    May 19, 2017
    A new report from Juniper Research has revealed that, by 2022, 50 per cent of new vehicles will be shipped with vehicle-to-vehicle (V2V) hardware, a technology that enables real-time short-range communication between vehicles. The new research, Consumer Connected Cars: Applications, Telematics & V2V 2017-2022, found that the total number of V2V-enabled consumer vehicles on the road will reach 35 million by 2022, up from less than 150,000 vehicles in 2017. This strong growth rate (376 per cent CAGR) reflects