Futuristic Infotainment in Cars Enabling Entertaining Drives

Cars are decking up infotainment features and enabling engaging and enjoyable entertainment experiences.

FREMONT, CA: The combination of cars and entertainment goes a long way back. A car experience can only seem complete with entertainment facilities in it. This has been the idea for the longest time, from the days of radio and cassettes. With the shift in the technology landscape, both the elements of the combination have undergone significant transformation. The cars of today are highly evolved, and the media and entertainment mediums have been revolutionized. The era of digitalization and the constant efforts from innovators, engineers, and designers to deliver better have led to the integration of advanced entertainment capabilities into smart, modern cars.

The entertainment systems in cars today are in the form of infotainment units. These units are designed, keeping in mind customer expectations. The hyper-connected world demands seamless compatibility between all possible appliances. The way the public consumes entertainment has also undergone a sea change with the emergence of online content delivery platforms. These platforms empower audiences to access quality content from anywhere, anytime, thereby enhancing audience engagement. Thus, it is expected that a consumer would want cars to come with systems that let users access multiple features through connected devices along with smooth access to the internet. The global automobile market realizes this and thus creates in-vehicle entertainment and information systems.

For a consumer looking to buy an automobile, the infotainment system is a priority today. Car manufacturers are creating and updating these infotainment systems regularly, in a bid to stay appealing and relevant to the customers. Be it economical cars, or be it luxury cars, there is always a demand for versatile and intuitive infotainment. A variety of operating systems are deployed to drive the engines. The most desirable features can be classified into the categories of connectivity, display quality, compatibility, and navigation. Modern users have got the hang of using maps to navigate and thus, incorporating navigation and routes into the system is crucial.

Dashboards in cars are now sleek and modern, with touch-enabled panels that form the infotainment system. In most cars, the dashboard determines the look and appeal of the car's interiors while the infotainment system determines how optimized the dashboard is. Most car manufacturers offer high levels of customizations for customers who want to take a pick between the infotainment features they want to avail. Although touch-enabled displays are there, designers often ensure a robust physical palette of controls which provide direct access to essential functionalities and improve the entertainment value. Better the controls, the better the quality of the entertainment experience.

The most integral aspect of an infotainment system in a car has to be the ease with which the driver can operate the mechanism. Effortless controls make for a great feature. This is because a driver is not always in a position to attend to secondary things while the primary activity of driving is on. Here, the convergence of the car infotainment system with advanced computer technologies has excellent scopes. Automation is already making its way into many aspects in cars with the development of electric and self-driving cars.

Looking at the automobile industry makes it apparent that a long series of innovations for infotainment systems is upcoming. Leading car manufacturing companies are about to release their flagship entertainment and information units loaded with features like dual touchscreen with a haptic feedback mechanism that will improve interactions.

Voice technology is one with a significant scope of adoption into car infotainment systems. Companies which have developed highly advanced audio-bots are customizing it for use in cars. The facilities this will bring about are transformational. A driver will just need to provide voice commands and quickly get any work done, thus eliminating the need for touch-based interfaces. With rapid development in natural language processing, voice command capabilities are getting better day by day, equipping car manufacturers with the option to create voice interaction units.

An entertainment system that will see the replacement of car windows with virtual screens is in the development pipeline. One can expect very immersive entertainment experiences in cars with audio-visual content displayed on window screens. This will be a significant leap from the current LED screens that cars have. Every aspect of entertainment from the display quality, the graphics, and the sound is up for definite evolution.

Another technology that is going to find many manifestations is that of augmented reality. Smart cars and electric cars will incorporate the augmented reality that will see a complete change in how the infotainment dashboard looks and feels. Smart glasses with augmented reality features will deliver essential data directly to the driver's line of vision, thereby removing the need for scanning the meters and pointers. The controls in these case will be backed with audio-control as well as gesture controls.

Gaining access to high-quality entertainment as well as highly valuable information has never been so optimized before. Car manufacturers, with a focus on delivering the best customer experience, are rolling out infotainment features that seemed like science-fiction till a decade ago. These features are designed for the long run as cars, unlike smartphones, are major investments and cannot be upgraded every year. A well organized, aesthetic entertainment system can give any automobile a competitive edge. Moving towards full-scale automation, cars are ensuring they foster a consolidated and futuristic infotainment module for each model being designed and manufactured.