Why The Car Industry Needs To Rethink The Dashboard User Interface Design

[Ingineer]

IMHO Tesla should open up the UI to outside coders so people could try out different ideas. To prevent hacking, I'd suggest that the entire UI be based on the Chrome browser with very limited APIs into the car's functionality. Before any code could be distributed beyond personal use it would have to be vetted by Tesla. A good first step would be a web/browser based simulator so people could put up their ideas for others to comment on.

+1 YES!

Once my car is out of warranty, I plan on doing something similar with Tesla's help or without. I'm not much of a GUI coder, but the low level stuff I can definitely play with. I'll figure out an easy (and hopefully reversibly) way for people to load an open Linux system on their MCU's, and then we can have community-based development.

The critical systems, such as braking, drive, steering, autopilot, etc are all handled by code running in other ECU's, so it's relatively safe to do this. If you don't believe me, do a "2 finger salute" and reboot the MCU (and even the IC) while driving. You'll find all the systems keep right on working the same way, just that the controls are not available. (Other than the hardware based things, such as steering wheel, brake pedal, accelerator, etc.)

Once we do this, Tesla's code will not be running, and thus updates will not occur or overwrite what we do. Though it may be possible to set up a community-based update server that performs a similar function so we can all share code and propagate updates easily.

Maybe Tesla will see our work and roll some of it back into production (optimistic view), or maybe their lawyers will send us cease-and-desist DMCA letters and try to fight us. (likely outcome) It will be hard to stop us all, though it may drive such things more "underground" like a lot of the CAN hacking is now.

 

[jcaspar]

Wow. Totally agree. The Porsche design is a disaster and the center console looks awful.

I disagree. Look at this Porsche cockpit:

View attachment 97259

That's too many buttons. That's overload and there is no way you get muscle memory for all those buttons. Tesla has a slew of physical controls for commonly used functions where muscle memory works. But beyond that? The buttons are terrible.

 

[jsm]

I was just talking to my wife about poor car user interface design. She drives a Volt and it is one of the worst interfaces I have ever used. It is very difficult to change the radio station, use the A/C or anything else. We have brought up many times how we love the Volt, but hate the buttons and touch screen layout.

I am surprised how poorly the car companies design the car user interfaces.