After riding with car owners, team members returned to their offices to go over their data. Engineers and designers wrote their observations on notes, stuck them to a conference room wall, and placed them on a pie chart that rated users from young to old, and from tech-savvy to tech-averse. Then they did a process called "walking the wall," in which they encouraged team members to look at the observations and contribute design ideas.
"We took the ideas and voted on them for technical feasibility," Hichme says. "Then we whittled the ideas down into a few (product) visions that we could build."
Proximity sensors sense the approach of a user's hand as far away as eight inches.
GM management, however, didn't immediately see the light. With the company nearing bankruptcy, many executives wondered about the wisdom of investing in such an expensive process. "Some of the stakeholders said, 'You want to do what? You want to ride along with people? Why don't you just use your gut?' " Hichme recalls. "But after the first event, we came back and presented our visions, and our executives looked at each other and said, 'Why aren't we doing this for all our products?' "
Based on feedback from users, GM's design team identified several ideas that became key elements of the new vision. One important element: user familiarity.
"Customers begged us, 'Can you make it like a product I own today, so I don't have to learn something new?' " Hichme says.
After visiting the Consumer Electronics Show in 2008, the design team identified capacitive touch as being key and set out to develop a user interface that would have a consumer electronics feel to it. With iPads not even on the market yet, the idea of a capacitive touchscreen seemed risky at the time, but it quickly proved itself. Today, the capacitive screen plays a critical role in CUE, enabling users to control in-car devices with the taps, flicks, swipes, pinches, and other gestures that have since become familiar to users of smartphones and tablet computers.
GM engineers say that CUE was in development for three years, largely because technologies such as the capacitive touchscreen hadn't previously been used in autos.
"We had to develop a touchscreen that would work in Michigan in winter and Phoenix in summer," Bly says. "Others have not pursued the technology in the past, but we decided to take the challenge." Bly adds that GM's success with automotive-grade capacitive touchscreens was largely due to a cooperative effort with an unnamed supplier.
As the vision evolved, the design team also took advantage of other technologies that were new to automotive center consoles. Haptic feedback, an idea that evolved during the user studies, enabled drivers to keep their eyes on the road when they reached for CUE's touchscreen. By employing a linear motor to provide a tactile mechanical pulse to the screen when users touched it, haptics supplied a "push-back," thus letting drivers know they were connected.
At the same time, engineers also settled on the use of proximity sensors to enable the unit's eight-inch LCD touchscreen to come to life when a user's finger drew within a few inches of it.
"We could have done that in different ways," Hichme says. "We could have had the screen come to life when you touch it. But that's not Cadillac. We wanted it to seem magical."
A final note on the Prius PHV, Ann. To me, it seems like the most logical form of electrification in vhicles today. By minimizing the size of the battery, Toyota will hopefully keep the costs down. If you're a person who drives less than 13 miles roundtrip to work, and if you recharge religiously, you can run in pure electric mode the majority of the time.
Ann: We should know by second quarter of this year. Predictions seem to vary from $28K to $32K, but when I interviewed Toyota engineers over the summer, they described the sweet spot as $26K. I doubt they can come in that low, but they do have the advantage of a small-ish battery on this (one-third the size of the Volt battery), so they should be able to keep costs down.
Wow, that price could make a big difference. Under $20K is my sweet spot for buying a new car, but under $30K is when I start paying attention. When do you think we'll find out?
Next we want to hear how much Toyota is going to charge for its plug-in vehicle, the Prius PHV. If that comes in at a reasonable price -- say, $28K -- we'll really see electrification appealing to more consumers. We should know soon.
Thanks for reporting on that lower-priced Prius and the down-sized pricing of plug-in hybrids. They should go a long way toward getting volumes up by appealing to more consumers, especially in these tough economic times.
Ann, I'm afraid that until now, most hybrids and electric cars have been aimed at upper-end consumers. That's starting to change no, though, with last week's introduction of the $19,000 Prius c. Automakers are also turning to plug-in hybrids because they can market them at the mid-level of the market by reducing the size of the battery and, therefore, reducing the cost.
Chuck, that's a really interesting shift in what's defined as luxury. Thanks for pointing that out. OTOH, I hope that doesn't mean that EVs and hybrids are being aimed at the upper end of consumers, since that will most likely delay acceptance and the higher volumes needed to make them mainstream. During the energy crisis in the mid-70s, people started buying smaller Japanese cars in huge numbers because they both cost less and had better mileage than Detroit. It was a win-win.
I think there's a solution to the unsustainable luxury car dilemma that you mention, Ann. In earlier stories, I have mentioned that the Volt is based on a new definition of luxury. I can buy a Chevy Cruze for under $20,000 or buy a Volt for $40,000. In some respects they are the same car, same size, same foundation. The Cruze gets 42 mpg; the Volt gets about 45 mpg on gasoline and 90+ mpge using electricity. The Volt also has a few more luxuries inside. I really do believe that most of the of the buyers of the Volt, Leaf and other EVs and hybrids are wealthier consumers with a new definition of luxury. If they were buying out of a sense of pragmatism, they'd go for vehicles like the Cruze.
I agree, Rob, that SUVs aren't always what they appear to be. And the reason that they are safer is simply that they are usually based on truck bodies, which makes them weigh more, which is partly why their mileage is so low, etc. etc.
If I want a truck--which I do--I'll buy a truck, not one of those.
With LEDs dropping in price virtually every year, automakers have begun employing them, not only on luxury vehicles, but on entry-level models, as well.
Using almost 200 light-emitting diodes in the front and back of the new 2014 CTS, Cadillac designers are showing how LEDs can change the character of a vehicle.
We recently posted an online slideshow called, “18 People You Didn’t Know Were Engineers.” Within hours of its publication, readers began to suggest names of other luminaries -- astronauts, politicians, athletes and actors -- who were educated or had worked as engineers.
In yet another sign that hydrogen is creeping into the consciousness of global automotive designers, sports car maker Aston Martin plans to run a hydrogen-fueled vehicle in a 24-hour Grand Touring race later this month.
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A quick look into the merger of two powerhouse 3D printing OEMs and the new leader in rapid prototyping solutions, Stratasys. The industrial revolution is now led by 3D printing and engineers are given the opportunity to fully maximize their design capabilities, reduce their time-to-market and functionally test prototypes cheaper, faster and easier. Bruce Bradshaw, Director of Marketing in North America, will explore the large product offering and variety of materials that will help CAD designers articulate their product design with actual, physical prototypes. This broadcast will dive deep into technical information including application specific stories from real world customers and their experiences with 3D printing. 3D Printing is
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