Elektrobit (EB) announced new offering providing car makers with solutions for intelligent automotive digital cockpits.
EB Cockpit System Solutions support the development of next-generation in-vehicle user experiences—from specification, design and conception to production engineering and integration of hardware, software, and third-party applications. The new solutions—first used by Sony Group Corporation to support the development of the its EV, VISION-S Prototype—allow car makers to offload the creation of custom cockpit designs to EB’s team of experts. EB makes it possible for them to differentiate their vehicles without the investment and resources required to build them from scratch and maintain over time.
The automotive cockpit is transforming, allowing drivers and passengers to interact with their vehicles as easily and seamlessly as they do with smartphones and smart appliances. However, bringing the consumer experience into the cockpit isn’t easy. It’s a complex task involving larger displays, voice interaction, augmented reality, access to cloud services, data from sensors, and more. Specifying, designing, sourcing, and integrating the various hardware, software and services required to bring these systems to life is time-consuming, resource-intensive and costly.
With EB Cockpit System Solutions, car makers now have an experienced, one-stop shop for creating state-of-the-art user experiences for their customers. EB fully controls the development process, streamlining every aspect and reducing overall TCO. The result is less specification work associated with single cockpit components, less interoperability testing, fewer suppliers to manage and reduced R&D requirements for the car maker.
EB brings together expertise from its decades as a pioneer and innovator in automotive software and services for established brands and startups, alike, to support customer requirements and deliver holistic and integrated cockpit solutions. EB’s capabilities encompass hypervisor, over-the-air updates, UX design, UI development, natural language understanding and speech recognition.
Its expertise extends to the sourcing and integration of advanced displays including state-of-the-art 3D glass and futuristic tech such as AM-OLED displays.
EB’s work with hardware and third-party software vendors simplifies supply chain management for customers, as well. EB Cockpit System Solutions customers benefit from EB’s strong network and established relationships, which include Amazon (Alexa Auto and Alexa Custom Assistant), Google (Android Automotive), Qualcomm, Infineon, Renesas, and BlackBerry QNX, to name a few.
“EB Cockpit System Solutions allow carmakers to bring digital innovations to life more quickly and cost-effectively by offloading the complexities of designing, sourcing and integrating the hardware and software elements to experts,” said Christian Reinhard, CTO, EB. “With EB, car makers can work with a single trusted vendor that has extensive know-how, a far-reaching eco-system of partners, and a history of success.”
EB Cockpit System Solutions are responsible for supporting the development of the cockpit in the VISION-S Prototype. Based on Sony’s vision for an intuitive and seamless in-car user experience, EB developed a cockpit system that brought together Sony’s UX design, infotainment software and a high-performance computer for the cockpit with fully featured customer-specific software. EB also supported the integration of digital mirrors, 3D glass and a door-to-door display panel.
“Software is key to our vision for the VISION-S, and we brought in experts including Elektrobit to make this vision a reality,” said Izumi Kawanishi, Executive Vice President, Sony Group Corporation. “Elektrobit provided its industry-leading software products, plus development and integration expertise. This enabled us to bring a unique and highly intuitive experience in the VISION-S cockpit to come to life.”
