Wheels of Progress: The Lure of Automotive Displays

JDI’s curved touch panel is designed to harmonize with automotive interiors.

One of the themes that rose to the top at this year’s Display Week was the proliferation of displays in cars. There are many more displays in automobiles than there used to be, and there are going to be many more in years to come -- not just in high-end vehicles, but in everyday ones too.

Almost every display maker I visited who had industrial/medical panels to show had a line of automotive displays as well. This was somewhat true in past years as well, but this year there were simply more, and the subject came up more. Obviously this trend is good news for display makers, who are constantly on the lookout for new uses for their products. (On the downside, at least one panel maker told me that airlines may eventually discontinue the use of individual displays for each passenger, because everyone will just use their own devices to display content provided by the airlines.)

An oft-mentioned aspect of this automotive display phenomenon is how ungainly flat panels can look amid the curved interiors of cars. Obviously it behooves display makers to work on making those auto panels in curved formats. Some are already at work on it, including JDI, which was demoing a curved automotive display that also had touch! – Jenny Donelan