Designer Interviews: Continental AG’s HMI design team

Continental is one of the world’s top automotive suppliers, providing carmakers with everything from brake systems to vehicle electronics. The firm’s global headquarters in Schwalbach am Taunus, Germany, is home to its Centre of Competence for Human Machine Interfaces, and its small design department led by Dr Thomas Vöhringer-Kuhnt.

“Today, the abundance of electronic features is the biggest challenge,” says Vöhringer-Kuhnt. “They have to be functional and look good. But drivers shouldn’t be distracted either, and unfortunately driving and manipulating the infotainment system both are visual and manual jobs.”

Continental AG head of design, Dr Thomas Vöhringer-Kuhnt

Balancing the best way to control a host of new features with all the safety and legislation is a tough task, but one that the design team is able to tackle more easily as technology rapidly evolves. “Our newest screens and controllers will give haptic feedback if you swipe your finger, so you don’t need to check the interaction on the screen anymore,” says Vöhringer-Kuhnt. “It’s as if a rubber ball lightly bounces under your hand. We can even simulate different materials, implement sound or adapt the sensation depending on the car brand.

“Such new technologies always debut in top-class vehicles,” he adds. “But this may only be a phase. Digital will probably become characteristic for lower-end cars, while premium vehicles hide all electronics behind handcrafted stuff.”

Digital has strengths and weaknesses

Design project manager, Heike Deutsch

“A digital pointer is certainly cheaper to manufacture,” adds Heike Deutsch, the firm’s project manager for design for the past 18 years. “It’s just software. If we’ll have the technology to make a hole in a digital display for a real pointer, that’ll be the future. I get good vibes from the watch industry. After the terrible stuff from the ’70s and ’80s, there are finally great mechanical watches again. Real pointers, chrome rings and other genuine materials will hopefully return in car interiors as well.”

Jochen Möller

Continental’s technical expert for interaction and user-experience design, Jochen Möller, is a fan of Tesla’s gigantic touchscreen though, although he believes there’s still room for improvement. “The buttons are big, the letters very readable, the menu well-structured and the reaction time is good. Sadly, it looks flat, boring and cheap.

“Digital dials aren’t as nice as real ones, no matter how much entertainment we include. Our hybrid clusters will combine genuine analogue pointers and printed dials with an entirely black digital display. It’ll be the best of both worlds,” he adds, referencing the fact that although the Mercedes S-Class IP curves gracefully, its screens are totally flat rectangles.

Current generation Mercedes S-Class cabin

Digital cluster instruments can easily be customised to the owner’s taste as some American cars already illustrate. But Deutsch doesn’t see this happening on a big scale in Europe. “We don’t have to do something only because we can. The digital clusters from the ’80s, which made all interiors look like KITT from Knight Rider, probably were the biggest mistakes ever. They just wanted to be different, without worrying about whether it worked or not.

Interior of KITT from Knight Rider

“We once offered VW a changing interior light. But its blue LED, which was supposed to create a happy feeling, was its pride and joy. No way would it also offer other colours. Premium brands can’t afford to give their clients choice or it won’t be a Mercedes or BMW any longer.”

Jochen Möller however understands how this customisation can increase the quality of usage if done within the brand’s design language. “Generations X, Y and Z are all individuals with their own taste. Strangely, mainly low-budget cars surf along this customising trend. Those mass-produced cars try very hard to pretend they’re not.”

Technology solves some problems, causes others

Vöhringer-Kuhnt doesn’t think that there can be such a thing as a cabin that meets the needs of absolutely every driver. “Too many target groups have conflicting desires. Out of all the countless influences and great technologies, we need to deduct a marketable, reliable product that functions and is affordable. No matter how far-fetched our dreams, we’re mass-producing for the mainstream. And we have to make money. Meanwhile, the car industry is very engineering-driven, rather conservative and extremely serious. It probably employs too many car guys, primarily engineering and designing for themselves.”

Less could be more, though, now all OEMs are caught in an arms race. “Obviously, you can exaggerate the amount of electronic features,” says Möller. “We’re now noticing a return to real, and certainly fewer buttons. This is the future of interior design, together with a perfect user experience, natural interaction and a high joy of use. Apple clearly is the benchmark for screen design. The layout is clean and the interface doesn’t leave too many choices. Simplicity is crucial. People are lazy and don’t want complex machines.”

Continental’s work with Audi includes clusters for the TT and R8

“We’ve done extensive research on how much information a driver can handle,” says Vöhringer-Kuhnt. “And it makes sense to combine a cluster display, as in the latest Audis, with a head-up display giving essential info right in the field of sight. We never use colours which often appear in the environment, and blue is not ideal because of contrast. We are now developing head-up displays with augmented reality. These give driving directions as if they’re projected onto the situation itself.”

Designers work with hundreds of different colours and materials

Augmented reality could be used elsewhere, although legislation currently stands in the way. “It’s mainly legal why we don’t have rearview screens to replace mirrors yet,” says Möller. “It totally makes sense, now augmented reality can, for instance, emphasise fast-arriving cars. It finally solves dead-angle issues, and the aerodynamics will improve significantly without big mirrors, certainly for trucks. However, self-parking and many other features are mainly driven by marketing, hoping to impress the client when buying the car.”

Lane control warning has its challenges

New technology in the car really is something of an evolving process, and not one that is universally accepted by all drivers at the same time. “Typically, control freaks don’t like lane-departure warning, while others find it totally relaxing,” Möller continues. “So suddenly personality becomes crucial in car usage. That’s another challenge. Also, people need to trust the car without over-trusting it. Otherwise, they’ll make U-turns on the highway when their sat-nav tells them so.”

Huge scope still remains even for traditional analogue dials

Another example of the complexities of adapting to new technology is a study into drowsiness detection and how different drivers respond to it. “When the electronics boldly advise to take a break, the driver is already so tired he can’t accurately judge his situation and doesn’t accept that a machine tells him what to do. So he does exactly the opposite and keeps on driving to prove he’s right. Suddenly this engineering attempt to improve the life of drivers does exactly the opposite because of human psychology.”

It’s examples like this that remind you of the complex relationship between car and driver, and where the responsibilities of each begin and end. The relationship is frequently changed and challenged by the addition of new technology, too, especially when features are designed to make life for the driver easier. One thing is for sure, if the technology isn’t designed well, the dangers are apparent, ensuring that the likes of the team at Continental will always have their work cut out.