Infotainment

With the growing demand for luxurious, safe, and smart vehicles, automotive manufacturers are increasingly developing automobiles with integrated infotainment systems – systems that provide a combination of entertainment and information for an enhanced in-vehicle experience.

The entire automotive industry is moving towards developing innovative technologies to enable better connectivity solutions, improve vehicle safety, and enhance in-vehicle user-experience. One of the key technologies, which works as a focal point of all the modern automotive systems and integrates their functions to be controlled and monitored from one central unit, is “In-Vehicle Infotainment System”.

Modern in-vehicle’s infotainment systems connect with all the smart automotive technologies like ADAS systems, V2X connectivity solutions, telematics devices, smartphones, sensors etc., and integrates them with each other to provide a great driving experience.

In-vehicle infotainment

The IVI can be described as a combination of vehicle systems which are used to deliver entertainment and information to the driver and the passengers through audio/ video interfaces, control elements like touch screen displays, button panel, voice commands, and many more.

Components of IVI

In-vehicle infotainment works in integration with many other in-vehicle and external systems to deliver entertainment and information to the driver and passengers.

The main components of an IVI are:

Integrated Head-Unit: In-vehicle infotainment head unit is a touch screen based, tablet-like device, mounted on the vehicle’s dashboard. With user friendly HMI, the head unit acts as a perfectly connected control center for the infotainment system.
Heads-Up Display: Automotive heads-up display is an integral part of high-end infotainment systems, which displays the vehicle’s real-time information on the transparent screen integrated with the vehicle’s windshield. Heads-up display helps in reducing the driver’s distraction while driving and assists him with key details like speed, navigation maps, electronic digital cluster (information from vehicle’s OBD port-II), climate, multimedia options, etc.
High-end DSPs and GPUs to support multiple displays: Latest infotainment systems are powered by powerful automotive processors designed for advanced IVI systems. These automotive processors are capable of displaying content on multiple displays (e.g. Head-up Display or Windshield, Connected smartphones, Head Unit, and more) and delivers an enhanced in-vehicle experience to drivers and passengers.
Operating Systems: In vehicle infotainment systems require operating systems that should support connectivity, convenience functions, and downloadable software applications to integrate new functions in the system. Operating systems like Android, Linux, QNX, Windows are leading the infotainment segment.
CAN, LVDS and other network protocol support: The electronic hardware components in infotainment systems are interconnected with certain standardized communication protocols such as CAN (Controller Area Network). CAN or any other network protocol support allows microcontrollers and devices to communicate with each other in applications without the host computer.
Connectivity Modules: Infotainment systems encompass GPS, Wi-Fi, and Bluetooth modules to provide connectivity with external networks and devices. These modules help in establishing services like navigation, internet connectivity and smartphone integration with the infotainment system.
Automotive Sensors Integration: Proximity sensors, gesture recognition sensors for detecting ambient light, camera sensors and many other in-vehicle sensors integrate with infotainment systems to provide safety-related information to the driver and passengers.
Digital Instrument Cluster: Hi-tech infotainment systems have transformed the automotive cockpit designs from static displays of the in-vehicle instruments to digital instrument clusters. Digital instrument clusters include digital displays of the traditional analog gauges in the vehicle like speedometer, RPM, odometer, etc.