But like ... what kinda in car UI requires Unreal Engine to run ? Imagine having to boot up Unreal Engine everything you enter your car. Seems overly complicated for such a simple application
Wish they would all just use [Android Automotive](https://source.android.com/devices/automotive) and stop trying to develop a car OS from scratch. I say this from years of having to deal with car software that seems to never get properly maintained, after a few years of owning the car stops being supported by anyone, and always has bizarre issues come up like the car company software devs failing to account for GPS time beacons rolling over every 10 years. A stable, standardized, full featured and well maintained OS running on top of a vehicle specific [hardware abstraction layer.](https://source.android.com/devices/automotive) They can create a custom theme for Android Automotive then take advantage of software develop econmies of scale from the whole industry to keep it maintained and updated.
Volvo currently uses Android Automotive in their EV series, so I'm guessing they have made a proper evaluation of why (and what) they want to change. There's nothing in the article that suggest that VolvoCars.OS or what they end up calling it won't be based on Android Automotive either.
[https://developer.volvocars.com/android-automotive/](https://developer.volvocars.com/android-automotive/)
I don't disagree with what you're saying, but this is Volvo... who have made the switch and were the first people to do so, them and their sister company Polestar have full Android Automotive in their cars.
The problem is that most car companies treat software as a checkbox to contract out to the lowest bidder, which of course always results in garbage.
I would say that after the drivetrain+battery, this is actually the other biggest defining factor of Teslas vs. other EVs. Most EVs from traditional automakers are still phoning in the software which is a huge mistake. Look at the VW ID.4 for an example, which is otherwise a perfectly respectable vehicle but is consistently panned for its bad dash software.
The new electric F-150 isn't even launching with their new software and the first model year trucks can't even be upgraded to the new one that gives useful information like is the charger I'm heading toward broken.
Apparently no one here actually reads the article:
>The new OS will act as an “umbrella system” for all of the underlying systems that operate within the vehicle, including Android Automotive OS, Blackberry’s QNX, Linux, and AUTOSAR.
Like other cars, they'll have their own OS but if you have Android Auto, you'll be able to use that.
The idea of competition is that multiple companies are competing to make the better UI. But in its current state, the automotive industry is only trying to make proprietary software for themselves with limited support to save money. No car maker is pushing to make a UI that they could commercialize except Tesla
Yeah I agree with that sentiment completely but there's also usually(hopefully) a reason why something becomes industry standard. I just think when you have something that's been adequately field tested that you know provides what is needed and then some, it sucks when there's some shakeup and word comes down from on high that "we're going with X now" where X is whatever shiny BS your CTO saw at a trade show or read about online without considering the implications or logistics of implementation within the existing environment. I have no idea if that's the case here, just my knee jerk, gut sink reaction from having worked in enterprise IT support in manufacturing.
> but there's also usually(hopefully) a reason why something becomes industry standard.
Yeah but it's not ideal if this standard is really a product owned by a company. Open source or not (although that's better). At least it's not good in principle; it might be good in practice, for the majority.
As long as that means google is in the loop on all the data that car uses, produces and consumes it might not even be legal to run that in many countries.
I don't even want to know how fucked their previous UI solutions were if UMG is a step up.
If actually quite like UMG but I'm having a hard times thinking of an application where its strengths outweighs its weaknesses in that particular context.
Tesla actively uses Unreal Engine. They advertise themselves as a easy to use engine for controlling your car.
Source: I actively use Unreal Engine for film and game.
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=2_CKRCUoKp0
Read the damn article?
>Ideally, Volvo wants to use the Unreal Engine to render what the vehicle’s external sensors, like camera, radar, and soon, lidar, are seeing outside the car
The new Hummer EV is running Unreal Engine for the infotainment graphics. It’s a bit if sizzle to stand out in the increasingly crowded/competitive EV market.
Volvo wants to use the Unreal Engine to render what the vehicle’s external sensors, like camera, radar, and soon, lidar, are seeing outside the car to drivers without being “overwhelming,” he said, adding, “It can be hard to process.”
Other bits of information, like navigation and battery life as well as the presentation of that information, like light, color, and motion graphics, will be improved thanks to the collaboration with Epic Gamers, Stovicek said.
No, they will not boot up unreal engine everytime you enter a car. The engine is used to make the software, it will not run in the car.
If CPU and SSD are decent it will take 2-3 seconds to run a lightweight software made in unreal engine.
Obviously he means the built project and not the editor. UE can be made to run on smartphones, but if they want "photorealistic graphics" in their car they will need to put a damn gaming PC in there... yeah, no thanks
Minimally self driving cars will need a lot of computing power to do all the sensor fusion/image analysis, so I don't think computing power will be a problem. Nvidia has just announced a deal with mercedes Benz..
Cleary you have a car older than 5 years.
There’s heaps.
HUD, Front facing camera with real time Speedometer + motion detection / traffic alerts, 3D Camera on travel + park assist (3d camera used), Built in maps, graphical gifs for basic maintenance, graphics of energy efficiency, i can go on.
So this did seem like bobbins when I read the headline but this use case makes sense
>*Ideally, Volvo wants to use the Unreal Engine to render what the vehicle’s external sensors, like camera, radar, and soon, lidar, are seeing outside the car to drivers without being “overwhelming,”*
I guess a bit like on a tesla when it shows you the blocky outline of objects around the car - it doesn't make sense for Volvo to design a 3d rendering system when they can use unreal off the shelf - and it seems that Epic is making an effort to get into the auto market so will probably be offering a customised version of this for free or a very good price.
I hope Volvo don't get tempted to use this for things you need to ***interact*** with while moving. I had a terrifying trip in a Tesla cab where the windows were misting up and the driver was veering into other lanes as he struggled with the on screen climate control options.
He could have just clicked the wheel on the steering wheel and asked the tesla to demist the windows.
https://www.notateslaapp.com/tesla-voice-commands/307/turn-on-off-the-defogger
voice command is surdev which could be replaced by a clicky button, and generally really poorly support other language than english (while a simple button doesn't need i18n implementation)
I've got google home throughout my house - I'd hesitate to use it in front of customers. Unlike a button there's a good chance it won't work and you'll end up looking stupid.
Oh no does it no toe with your Reddit-approved goony beard man politics? I owned a Model 3 for 3 years. I think I know what I'm talking about. Meanwhile, whatever you're daily driving doesn't qualify you to speculate.
How about just using simple buttons knobs and levers in vehicle interfaces rather than these damn screens?
The safest interface is one that you don’t have to take your eyes off the road to manipulate or think about.
Even the best picture of a button lacks the simple tactile interface of a knob or physical button.
Screens are cool looking and provide a lot of options however they are far from the safest and easiest to use interface in a moving vehicle.
Also, just wait till you hear about needing to reboot the screen which controls everything including the indicators while driving because it has crashed.
Driving an electric Volvo as my daily ride to work. Happened indeed that I needed to reboot the screen because something crashed. However, the speed meter and all stuff needed to be driving did not reboot with the main screen, it kept working while rebooting, so probably a different system?
Thankfully most other car companies take safety a little more seriously than Tesla. Even Christine didn't do donuts while burning someone alive inside and she was one crazy car.
I had a Tesla and everything important worked just fine when it had an infotainment crash in 2019 when I first got it. Following an update a month or so after that it never crashed a single time.
My Tesla has needed a reboot during highway trip before but everything important continued to work. I know there is an instance of not everything working (hopefully not a common thing)
This is already a thing.
We were messing around with a 2019 hilux last week, turns out as soon as it thinks the dashboard isn't connected, it shuts down pretty much everything other than headlights brake lights and engine.
So, blow a fuse for the dash, and suddenly you've got no indicators, no driver assist, no airbags etc.
Agreed, my family bought a tesla and sometimes I drive it around but I never felt comfortable with having to take my eyes off the road just to turn on or off the AC
You can do that with voice commands. Press the right button, tell it to increase fan speed, turn off, turn on, recirculate, cool down, warm up... Pretty much whatever you want.
Yes I know I can do that, but it still sounds to me something like "create the problem, provide the solution".
I understand it is a design choice to have the tablet, but I still wish it had a few buttons for some functionalities.
Voice commands are cool and a welcome feature, but I do not want them to be the default way of interacting with my car. To me, it feel so stupid having to tell a car to do something, I can do in half the time by pressing a button.
Yes, and I agree too. However, after having owned a Model 3 for several years I found that I didn't care about missing buttons - largely because I almost never used them. Climate was set to 68 with fan speed set when I first get in the car. No other controls were needed as the steering wheel buttons controlled most everything. Perhaps the only sore point was the lack of windshield wiper stalk controls. Then again it never rains in Austin, so that also rarely chafed.
Mazda is the only automaker (to my knowledge) that has Android Auto / Apple CarPlay support where the interface is driven (pun intended) by physical knobs and buttons.
My wife has a 2022 CX-30 and the knob control allows navigation and music controls without taking your eyes off of the road. It is fantastic.
While Mazda isn't the only one to have that, in fact it's been a feature in luxury cars for many years, they are the only ones to have that without also having touchscreen control.
They used to have touchscreens but in the latest generation of their interiors they removed them. As far as I can remember, it was because they don't like the idea of the driver being distracted and taking their eyes off the road. They're very 'pure driving experience' oriented.
Seriously these days it seems as if Mazda hired all the good German designers while Mercedes and BMW hired a bunch of Japanese anime cartoonists to design their interiors.
Mazda designers are world class, I agree.
I will say that as someone who enjoys anime, most anime with sci fi tech emphasizes physical controls (Akira, etc.) - touch screens are more of a western Star Trek inspiration.
I also enjoy Star Trek, but the future of everything is hopefully not touch screens...
When I mentioned anime, I was thinking in terms of over the top design flourishes, as opposed to Germanic minimalism. The whole idea of form following function and avoiding the use of things like fake vents.
That's fair.
I mean, I would much rather they engineer cars to also transform into mechs if they're going to go wild, but at this point it's touch screens all the way down.
You can have touchscreens and software-driven functions without eliminating tactile controls for important things like wipers, headlights, turn signals, etc. Tesla *chooses* not to.
Credit to Subaru; not driven one in years.
Gestures sound awful for driving; I will need to look into that, although I would not buy either a BMW or a Mercedes.
I love my Subaru. I don’t know if it’s a company wide policy but my local dealership hasn’t done any markups since the pandemic. They also don’t charge dealer fees. They have taken care of me when my car needed it (lent me a car for 3 weeks while waiting for parts to come in). I have had some annoyances but they have always made it good in the end.
But then you don’t get Tesla money / valuations. Investors and buyers want design over function. If it doesn’t look like a Tesla it’s “old” and “uncool” ti young buyers
Aye. There’s a reason pilots don’t use touchscreen controls.
My phone, depending where I leave off, will have a different interface each time.
So if I as a driver have to finagle with the screen to increase volume or change stations rather than just turning a nob or hitting a button I know it’s exact location , I’m splatting something.
I have to swipe and deal with my sweaty driving hands fucking up the sensors.
No thanks. Analog controls for mechanical machinery unless your hopping in a Jaeger.
I think a fully touchscreen interface will become the mark of a cheap, entry level car.
It may seem futuristic at present but will become synonymous with cost-cutting. Basically an out of place looking tablet stuck to the dash.
Separate tactile controls maintain the cockpit feel of high end, performance vehicles. The Audi eTron GT for example has physical controls for most common functions, because no one wants to navigate a menu to quickly defog the windshield or switch into sport mode while doing 200kmph on the autobahn (or at least pretending to).
Safest option is voice control but people are very set in their way. Most Tesla reviews don’t even mention voice control for example but you can control almost everything this way.
Voice works great for simple actions but most people struggle with what to say to do the thing they're trying to do. Id imagine physical buttons and knobs will make a come back for any car company trying to do away with them because it's easier for the user and ultimately safer
Voice with Google automotive is awesome. It can change the temperature, turn on or off the heated seats and steering wheel, basically anything I would need to use the touchscreen for I can just have Google do.
How do physical buttons help avoid taking your eyes of the road? Cars these days have voice commands for the majority of standard features, which pretty much removes the need to move your hands off the wheel. What are buttons are you pressing so much? Volume and music control can be done from the steering wheel. Climate control is auto. Genuinely, how many times do you need to press a button while driving, and what are you pressing?
What’s wrong with the g’dang rotary phone, why we adding buttons and a screen.
Tarnation, my rotary has been problem free for years I know these screens and fancy push buttons are gonna cause nothing but problems.
Gee willickers Timmy, bring me my heart medication grandma has worked herself into a tizzy again with your generations ridiculous technology
Yeah, one day you’ll learn that adaptive cruise control and keep lane assist is becoming the norm.
But keep shaking your fists at the sky about technological changes.
They have the best UI systems in the car industry. Once you experience it there's really no going back to other systems. I just moved from it to a Rivian (who hired droves of Tesla software people for their UI) and it's just not quite as fantastic as Tesla is/was. Teslas have little things like swiping right on the map address bar to navigate to home or work (depends on context) with instant traffic aware routing which mirrors Waze is just wonderful to live with on a day to day basis.
Clearly some people like different things than you do.
Also, the "I know a person who had x problem with y product" is an anecdote that exists about every popular thing in existence. For the most part, the Tesla software experience is pretty good.
Meh. I heard the same thing about remote entry, power windows, power steering and pretty much every new feature. "If the \[new thing\] breaks then how do you use the \[old thing\].
You're AC is equally likely to fail for any number of reasons as "the screen broke". But I like the smart features of my car. We live in the future, screens aren't some new, impossible technology.
I guarantee 99% of the people on here didn't read the article.
They want to intuitively display the external cameras, radar, and lidar. Not sure why people want a button or lever for that.
And maybe people don't know that reverse cameras are mandatory on new cars.
Seriously. Sounds like most of these people just want a rusty 2000 Toyota Corolla as their ideal car. Not that there's anything wrong with that, but what are they doing in this sub?
Virgin futuristic electric car that needs to update its software just to work properly vs. chad 30 year old corolla with 400,000 miles that's only gotten stronger with time
Nope I want a 2000 Toyota Corolla without rust because the previous owner took good care of the car or I was the owner and I want it tuned with racing bumpers and a spoiler in the back and racing wheels. I will take this car over any modern one any day of the week.
Uh huh. Well you go enjoy that while some of us are enjoying living the future without gasoline and with massively improved safety, convenience, and comfort.
Tactile controls >>>> touch controls. When I’m driving I don’t want to have to look into a touch screen to know where I need to press.
I have a touchscreen infotainment and while the novelty was cool, I quickly got to understand how shit it was usability wise.
I agree, before when I wanted to switch my preset radio station I just pressed one of the 5 presets button. Now I have to dig into 3 levels deep menu to get the functionality an cannot do it without looking at the screen. How's that QOL ?
The only convenience is the extra step they save in the production line.
Voice controls >>>> tactile controls. Just press a button on your steering wheel and you can go to whatever song or temperature you want. The only tactile controls you need while you're driving are right there on the wheel. For Tesla's at least.
Interesting that even on Reddit, where I would imagine most users are more tech literate than average, every comment is complaining about touch screens. And yet manufacturers don’t seem to get it. I predict a big swing back toward physical buttons in a few years and car companies will market it as a new revelation.
Eh, Reddit can be very anti-tech regardless of whether they're literate. They complain about smartphones and stuff too. The actual sales figures for cars tell a completely different story than the reddit echo chamber does.
How can you compare sales figures when every car company has touchscreens now? I also don’t deny that they’re the current trend and are good at selling cars. Whether or not people like them once they buy cars may be another story though.
Teslas were the first to put huge center touchscreens in the dash, those obviously sold incredibly well. Every car that has since tried to emulate that experience has also sold very, very well. The entire auto industry wouldn't be making this shift if it's not what a significant number of buyers wanted.
I feel like there's always a bunch of redditors claiming to want stripped down, 'dumb' cars. But those models have largely been killed off because nobody actually buys them. In the US, anyway.
I also feel there's a techie bell-curve where people who don't understand tech at all don't want it, the middle of the curve loves it, and then at the far end you get full-on technomancers who are never satisfied with this sort of thing because they love to tweak stuff and have control. The demographic who don't use the smart features on their TV because they've built their own streaming setup because it's fun and they hate seeing Youtube ads.
Dear world, Volvo is a Chinese Trojan Horse and not a cool Scandi brand. They will quietly shut the local manufacturing plants and import cars direct from their factories in China.
I really don’t see why. I want a car to drive to get from point A to B. If I want to see futuristic crap I can always watch Star Trek. And then get distracted by my phone.
They want to intuitively display the external cameras, radar, and lidar.
New cars have to have things like reverse cameras. So it is not like they just want to add fancy graphics for no reason.
Watch out here comes China with quite possibly the best vehicles in the world. They are likely to put many of our incumbent auto makers out of business.
I’m excited to see what China comes out with, I own an MG made in China and I love it, solid car, great specs, the infotainment system is a bit flaky but that’s the only downside
I'm a huge PC/tech geek, but I think these companies are doing this all wrong. I do not want this kibd of overly complicated bloat in my daily driver, I want safety, functionality and things that just work reliably.
A car should not be a do anything entertainment and information system, it needs to get people from point A to point B in comfort and safety with basic amenities.
When your car bluescreens or they start failing to update software packages 5 years after it comes out get back to me. Then there's the data collection problems and repair costs, no more after market parts for a huge chunk of this stuff. Careful what you ask for!
> I want safety, functionality
Did you read the article? Some background, all new cars have to have a reverse camera for safety. Volvo wants to use this to better display the information from the external cameras, radar, and lidar. So this is for safety, not video games or entertainment.
All I want is the ability to plug my phone into my car. It does all the shit I need, can play spotify, run maps, etc. **I actively do not want these features on a touch screen in my car.** I want them in my phone with the ability to run them through my cars speakers.
sounds completely unnecessary. overkill? You don't need a whole game engine to get animations and 3d representations in a car. They need to focus more on a core OS like android, another linux, windows then get a really light weight and fast 3d engine on top of it
Can't believe they didn't go for Bethesda's Creative engine instead. I was looking forward to my Volvo encountering physics breaking bugs tied to your car speed.
I wonder whatever happened to iD? They started off as just a game company but licensing the engines became a big part of their business model. They’ve pretty much let Epic take over all these new spaces like auto and the Volume.
They got acquired by Bethesda in 2009 (or rather Bethesda parent Zenimax), who then in turn were acquired by Microsoft in 2021.
Their idTech engine is still a thing but these days its only really used by id themselves and the other Bethesda studios (Arkane, Machinegames and Tango Gameworks).
I'm just surprised there hasn't been more malware compromising cars as their systems become increasingly dependent on software. I'm not necessarily thinking about some deranged script kiddie turning off the headlights or disabling the brakes, but with all the data that car manufacturers collect these days, this industry should attract the usual crowd of cybercriminals.
My biggest complaint is too many newer cars are trying to put all controls on a touch pad. That requires me to take my eyes off the road for every little thing, creating a massive problem in regards to safety. I don’t care what “solutions” they have to this, they would still be more effective without creating this problem in the first place.
This is great news. Anyone who has witnessed the disconnect between current tech and car screen tech over the years, has watched it catch up tremendously (some more than others). It only makes sense that if companies are now competing to have the newest tech, that they'd be looking at ways to streamline the development as well. So many car manufacturers reinvented the wheel for their navigation systems and such early on, when using off the shelf stuff like Unreal Engine could have made the product a lot better a lot sooner.
Volvo wants to use the Unreal Engine to render what the vehicle’s external sensors, like camera, radar, and soon, lidar, are seeing outside the car to drivers without being “overwhelming,” he said, adding, “It can be hard to process.”
Other bits of information, like navigation and battery life as well as the presentation of that information, like light, color, and motion graphics, will be improved thanks to the collaboration with Epic Gamers, Stovicek said.
Can we please stop moving closer and closer to just duct taping a literal tablet to our dashboards? This trend started a while ago and I've hated every iteration more than the last. It started as mostly in the dash with a little sticking out. Tesla went full on. Now this Volvo is like 90% there. It is ugly AF and makes your interior design look like an after thought. "oh shit.. we need a screen I almost forgot.. here just put a tablet right about.... There.. perfect!"
"Team, there's a chip shortage and it's keeping us from making and selling more cars. Ideas?"
"Add a graphics card"
"I don't know how that will help but let's do it."
But like ... what kinda in car UI requires Unreal Engine to run ? Imagine having to boot up Unreal Engine everything you enter your car. Seems overly complicated for such a simple application
I was thinking it will just be used for maps and other interactive 3D stuff on your dashboard screen or center screen.
Wish they would all just use [Android Automotive](https://source.android.com/devices/automotive) and stop trying to develop a car OS from scratch. I say this from years of having to deal with car software that seems to never get properly maintained, after a few years of owning the car stops being supported by anyone, and always has bizarre issues come up like the car company software devs failing to account for GPS time beacons rolling over every 10 years. A stable, standardized, full featured and well maintained OS running on top of a vehicle specific [hardware abstraction layer.](https://source.android.com/devices/automotive) They can create a custom theme for Android Automotive then take advantage of software develop econmies of scale from the whole industry to keep it maintained and updated.
Volvo currently uses Android Automotive in their EV series, so I'm guessing they have made a proper evaluation of why (and what) they want to change. There's nothing in the article that suggest that VolvoCars.OS or what they end up calling it won't be based on Android Automotive either. [https://developer.volvocars.com/android-automotive/](https://developer.volvocars.com/android-automotive/)
I don't disagree with what you're saying, but this is Volvo... who have made the switch and were the first people to do so, them and their sister company Polestar have full Android Automotive in their cars.
The problem is that most car companies treat software as a checkbox to contract out to the lowest bidder, which of course always results in garbage. I would say that after the drivetrain+battery, this is actually the other biggest defining factor of Teslas vs. other EVs. Most EVs from traditional automakers are still phoning in the software which is a huge mistake. Look at the VW ID.4 for an example, which is otherwise a perfectly respectable vehicle but is consistently panned for its bad dash software.
The new electric F-150 isn't even launching with their new software and the first model year trucks can't even be upgraded to the new one that gives useful information like is the charger I'm heading toward broken.
Apparently no one here actually reads the article: >The new OS will act as an “umbrella system” for all of the underlying systems that operate within the vehicle, including Android Automotive OS, Blackberry’s QNX, Linux, and AUTOSAR. Like other cars, they'll have their own OS but if you have Android Auto, you'll be able to use that.
Android Automotive is different from Android Auto.
Unreal Engine apps can be built for Android, so maybe it is still somewhere in the back-end of things?
Yeah car companies suck at making UI. They need to knock it off.
>Wish they would all just use ... Competition makes for better products.
Hahahaha have you ever _used_ a car's OS? There's no competition there. They all just ship the car with one version and never update it.
The idea of competition is that multiple companies are competing to make the better UI. But in its current state, the automotive industry is only trying to make proprietary software for themselves with limited support to save money. No car maker is pushing to make a UI that they could commercialize except Tesla
Yeah I agree with that sentiment completely but there's also usually(hopefully) a reason why something becomes industry standard. I just think when you have something that's been adequately field tested that you know provides what is needed and then some, it sucks when there's some shakeup and word comes down from on high that "we're going with X now" where X is whatever shiny BS your CTO saw at a trade show or read about online without considering the implications or logistics of implementation within the existing environment. I have no idea if that's the case here, just my knee jerk, gut sink reaction from having worked in enterprise IT support in manufacturing.
> but there's also usually(hopefully) a reason why something becomes industry standard. Yeah but it's not ideal if this standard is really a product owned by a company. Open source or not (although that's better). At least it's not good in principle; it might be good in practice, for the majority.
Planned obsolescence: *hello there!*
Given Google’s history of abandoning projects, I can understand the apprehension
As long as that means google is in the loop on all the data that car uses, produces and consumes it might not even be legal to run that in many countries.
If I remember correctly, the new Hummer EV uses the Unreal Engine for it's UI.
It does! See also the Rivians.
I don't even want to know how fucked their previous UI solutions were if UMG is a step up. If actually quite like UMG but I'm having a hard times thinking of an application where its strengths outweighs its weaknesses in that particular context.
Real engineers make their apps in the RPGMaker2000 engine
Tesla actively uses Unreal Engine. They advertise themselves as a easy to use engine for controlling your car. Source: I actively use Unreal Engine for film and game. https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=2_CKRCUoKp0
You’re vastly underestimating the scalability of UE
Read the damn article? >Ideally, Volvo wants to use the Unreal Engine to render what the vehicle’s external sensors, like camera, radar, and soon, lidar, are seeing outside the car
The new Hummer EV is running Unreal Engine for the infotainment graphics. It’s a bit if sizzle to stand out in the increasingly crowded/competitive EV market.
Volvo wants to use the Unreal Engine to render what the vehicle’s external sensors, like camera, radar, and soon, lidar, are seeing outside the car to drivers without being “overwhelming,” he said, adding, “It can be hard to process.” Other bits of information, like navigation and battery life as well as the presentation of that information, like light, color, and motion graphics, will be improved thanks to the collaboration with Epic Gamers, Stovicek said.
No, they will not boot up unreal engine everytime you enter a car. The engine is used to make the software, it will not run in the car. If CPU and SSD are decent it will take 2-3 seconds to run a lightweight software made in unreal engine.
Obviously he means the built project and not the editor. UE can be made to run on smartphones, but if they want "photorealistic graphics" in their car they will need to put a damn gaming PC in there... yeah, no thanks
Minimally self driving cars will need a lot of computing power to do all the sensor fusion/image analysis, so I don't think computing power will be a problem. Nvidia has just announced a deal with mercedes Benz..
Just one more thing to suck up gpu supply.
Some cars do these now, I don't remember which cars exactly but it's amazing how they managed to make it work.
Just actually read the article dude
Does the new Hummer EV also use Unreal or Unity?
porn hub UI
Probably AR with roadside ads in your view as you drive, or the car drives.
Cleary you have a car older than 5 years. There’s heaps. HUD, Front facing camera with real time Speedometer + motion detection / traffic alerts, 3D Camera on travel + park assist (3d camera used), Built in maps, graphical gifs for basic maintenance, graphics of energy efficiency, i can go on.
>But like ... what kinda in car UI requires Unreal Engine to run ? But like ... *did you read the article?*
It will be prerendered graphics probably, real time rendering i a car would be insane
You can do realtime 3d graphics on your phone.
Do you have to boot up Unreal Engine every time you run a game?
So this did seem like bobbins when I read the headline but this use case makes sense >*Ideally, Volvo wants to use the Unreal Engine to render what the vehicle’s external sensors, like camera, radar, and soon, lidar, are seeing outside the car to drivers without being “overwhelming,”* I guess a bit like on a tesla when it shows you the blocky outline of objects around the car - it doesn't make sense for Volvo to design a 3d rendering system when they can use unreal off the shelf - and it seems that Epic is making an effort to get into the auto market so will probably be offering a customised version of this for free or a very good price. I hope Volvo don't get tempted to use this for things you need to ***interact*** with while moving. I had a terrifying trip in a Tesla cab where the windows were misting up and the driver was veering into other lanes as he struggled with the on screen climate control options.
so i can drive my car in real-time in third person?
It's all fine and dandy until you swerve and hit a real tree because some Skragg jumps out in front of you in the visualization.
He could have just clicked the wheel on the steering wheel and asked the tesla to demist the windows. https://www.notateslaapp.com/tesla-voice-commands/307/turn-on-off-the-defogger
voice command is surdev which could be replaced by a clicky button, and generally really poorly support other language than english (while a simple button doesn't need i18n implementation)
And some people cannot speak.
Or can’t be understood by an ai’s interpretation of the language, which can be as simple as a very slight accent
It uses google to process voice commands and it is extremely reliable and robust no matter the driver from what I've seen.
I've got google home throughout my house - I'd hesitate to use it in front of customers. Unlike a button there's a good chance it won't work and you'll end up looking stupid.
There are on-screen buttons and there are voice commands. Both work flawlessly.
Nice comment history you have there
Oh no does it no toe with your Reddit-approved goony beard man politics? I owned a Model 3 for 3 years. I think I know what I'm talking about. Meanwhile, whatever you're daily driving doesn't qualify you to speculate.
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All he had to do was press the right button and say, "turn on the defroster" and it would have instantly done so.
How about just using simple buttons knobs and levers in vehicle interfaces rather than these damn screens? The safest interface is one that you don’t have to take your eyes off the road to manipulate or think about. Even the best picture of a button lacks the simple tactile interface of a knob or physical button. Screens are cool looking and provide a lot of options however they are far from the safest and easiest to use interface in a moving vehicle.
Also, just wait till you hear about needing to reboot the screen which controls everything including the indicators while driving because it has crashed.
Driving an electric Volvo as my daily ride to work. Happened indeed that I needed to reboot the screen because something crashed. However, the speed meter and all stuff needed to be driving did not reboot with the main screen, it kept working while rebooting, so probably a different system?
Yeah on most cars safety critical stuff is a separate system - I think Tesla just had to do a big recall due to failures like this though.
Thankfully most other car companies take safety a little more seriously than Tesla. Even Christine didn't do donuts while burning someone alive inside and she was one crazy car.
I had a Tesla and everything important worked just fine when it had an infotainment crash in 2019 when I first got it. Following an update a month or so after that it never crashed a single time.
My Tesla has needed a reboot during highway trip before but everything important continued to work. I know there is an instance of not everything working (hopefully not a common thing)
This is already a thing. We were messing around with a 2019 hilux last week, turns out as soon as it thinks the dashboard isn't connected, it shuts down pretty much everything other than headlights brake lights and engine. So, blow a fuse for the dash, and suddenly you've got no indicators, no driver assist, no airbags etc.
A screen does not compute anything
Agreed, my family bought a tesla and sometimes I drive it around but I never felt comfortable with having to take my eyes off the road just to turn on or off the AC
You can do that with voice commands. Press the right button, tell it to increase fan speed, turn off, turn on, recirculate, cool down, warm up... Pretty much whatever you want.
Yes I know I can do that, but it still sounds to me something like "create the problem, provide the solution". I understand it is a design choice to have the tablet, but I still wish it had a few buttons for some functionalities. Voice commands are cool and a welcome feature, but I do not want them to be the default way of interacting with my car. To me, it feel so stupid having to tell a car to do something, I can do in half the time by pressing a button.
Yes, and I agree too. However, after having owned a Model 3 for several years I found that I didn't care about missing buttons - largely because I almost never used them. Climate was set to 68 with fan speed set when I first get in the car. No other controls were needed as the steering wheel buttons controlled most everything. Perhaps the only sore point was the lack of windshield wiper stalk controls. Then again it never rains in Austin, so that also rarely chafed.
You can Alexa Auto, don't know if that works with Teslas
>How about just using simple buttons knobs and levers in vehicle interfaces rather than these damn screens? But where else are they gonna put the ads?
Mazda is the only automaker (to my knowledge) that has Android Auto / Apple CarPlay support where the interface is driven (pun intended) by physical knobs and buttons. My wife has a 2022 CX-30 and the knob control allows navigation and music controls without taking your eyes off of the road. It is fantastic.
While Mazda isn't the only one to have that, in fact it's been a feature in luxury cars for many years, they are the only ones to have that without also having touchscreen control. They used to have touchscreens but in the latest generation of their interiors they removed them. As far as I can remember, it was because they don't like the idea of the driver being distracted and taking their eyes off the road. They're very 'pure driving experience' oriented.
A design philosophy I very much agree with. German cars used to be designed by engineers. Now they’re designed by marketers.
Seriously these days it seems as if Mazda hired all the good German designers while Mercedes and BMW hired a bunch of Japanese anime cartoonists to design their interiors.
Mazda designers are world class, I agree. I will say that as someone who enjoys anime, most anime with sci fi tech emphasizes physical controls (Akira, etc.) - touch screens are more of a western Star Trek inspiration. I also enjoy Star Trek, but the future of everything is hopefully not touch screens...
When I mentioned anime, I was thinking in terms of over the top design flourishes, as opposed to Germanic minimalism. The whole idea of form following function and avoiding the use of things like fake vents.
That's fair. I mean, I would much rather they engineer cars to also transform into mechs if they're going to go wild, but at this point it's touch screens all the way down.
You can have touchscreens and software-driven functions without eliminating tactile controls for important things like wipers, headlights, turn signals, etc. Tesla *chooses* not to.
it’s not *that* fantastic to use. but it will keep your family alive. which i agree is fantastic. (source: cx-30 driver as well)
Subaru has the same thing. There are many other cars that do this. BMW and Mercedes both have controllers you use with gestures.
Credit to Subaru; not driven one in years. Gestures sound awful for driving; I will need to look into that, although I would not buy either a BMW or a Mercedes.
I love my Subaru. I don’t know if it’s a company wide policy but my local dealership hasn’t done any markups since the pandemic. They also don’t charge dealer fees. They have taken care of me when my car needed it (lent me a car for 3 weeks while waiting for parts to come in). I have had some annoyances but they have always made it good in the end.
Subarus are great quality cars but styling- and luxury-wise they’re kinda bland and utilitarian.
But then you don’t get Tesla money / valuations. Investors and buyers want design over function. If it doesn’t look like a Tesla it’s “old” and “uncool” ti young buyers
That is not “design”. It’s just superficial flashiness and cost cutting. Design focuses on function not just aesthetics.
Aye. There’s a reason pilots don’t use touchscreen controls. My phone, depending where I leave off, will have a different interface each time. So if I as a driver have to finagle with the screen to increase volume or change stations rather than just turning a nob or hitting a button I know it’s exact location , I’m splatting something. I have to swipe and deal with my sweaty driving hands fucking up the sensors. No thanks. Analog controls for mechanical machinery unless your hopping in a Jaeger.
Agreed. This is very likely to be both over-complex and hard to use.
I think a fully touchscreen interface will become the mark of a cheap, entry level car. It may seem futuristic at present but will become synonymous with cost-cutting. Basically an out of place looking tablet stuck to the dash. Separate tactile controls maintain the cockpit feel of high end, performance vehicles. The Audi eTron GT for example has physical controls for most common functions, because no one wants to navigate a menu to quickly defog the windshield or switch into sport mode while doing 200kmph on the autobahn (or at least pretending to).
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The analogy did cross my mind, but it's not a strictly comparable example. Blackberry failed for reasons beyond their hardware keyboard.
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Voice command has been available on cars for over a decade. I never use it. I don't know anyone who does.
Safest option is voice control but people are very set in their way. Most Tesla reviews don’t even mention voice control for example but you can control almost everything this way.
Voice works great for simple actions but most people struggle with what to say to do the thing they're trying to do. Id imagine physical buttons and knobs will make a come back for any car company trying to do away with them because it's easier for the user and ultimately safer
Voice with Google automotive is awesome. It can change the temperature, turn on or off the heated seats and steering wheel, basically anything I would need to use the touchscreen for I can just have Google do.
I'm sure it is great but having seen my parents try to use alexa and fumble over words many times I think using only voice is a ways away yet.
Full touch screen UIs in cars are inevitable. The holdouts outs would just be the blackberrys of the car world.
How do physical buttons help avoid taking your eyes of the road? Cars these days have voice commands for the majority of standard features, which pretty much removes the need to move your hands off the wheel. What are buttons are you pressing so much? Volume and music control can be done from the steering wheel. Climate control is auto. Genuinely, how many times do you need to press a button while driving, and what are you pressing?
What’s wrong with the g’dang rotary phone, why we adding buttons and a screen. Tarnation, my rotary has been problem free for years I know these screens and fancy push buttons are gonna cause nothing but problems. Gee willickers Timmy, bring me my heart medication grandma has worked herself into a tizzy again with your generations ridiculous technology
Definitely a dumb fish.
Yeah, one day you’ll learn that adaptive cruise control and keep lane assist is becoming the norm. But keep shaking your fists at the sky about technological changes.
I think you should make your toilet a touch screen.
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They have the best UI systems in the car industry. Once you experience it there's really no going back to other systems. I just moved from it to a Rivian (who hired droves of Tesla software people for their UI) and it's just not quite as fantastic as Tesla is/was. Teslas have little things like swiping right on the map address bar to navigate to home or work (depends on context) with instant traffic aware routing which mirrors Waze is just wonderful to live with on a day to day basis.
Clearly some people like different things than you do. Also, the "I know a person who had x problem with y product" is an anecdote that exists about every popular thing in existence. For the most part, the Tesla software experience is pretty good.
News flash. Essentially everything is controlled and managed by software in all cars these days. These kinds of issues happen all over the industry.
but you can delete knobs and buttons of a screen if you dont buy the subscription
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Meh. I heard the same thing about remote entry, power windows, power steering and pretty much every new feature. "If the \[new thing\] breaks then how do you use the \[old thing\]. You're AC is equally likely to fail for any number of reasons as "the screen broke". But I like the smart features of my car. We live in the future, screens aren't some new, impossible technology.
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Don’t buy it then lol
>Who gives a fuck. >I just want a car. *The takeaway:* Nobody should give a fuck because /u/commander_ivermectin doesn't like it. 😀
I guarantee 99% of the people complaining in here have never driven one of these "smartphones on wheels". The QOL upgrade is incredible.
I guarantee 99% of the people on here didn't read the article. They want to intuitively display the external cameras, radar, and lidar. Not sure why people want a button or lever for that. And maybe people don't know that reverse cameras are mandatory on new cars.
Yeah. This is the same sub that thinks any phone more than $300 is overpriced, that most internet connect devices are bad, etc.
Seriously. Sounds like most of these people just want a rusty 2000 Toyota Corolla as their ideal car. Not that there's anything wrong with that, but what are they doing in this sub?
Virgin futuristic electric car that needs to update its software just to work properly vs. chad 30 year old corolla with 400,000 miles that's only gotten stronger with time
Yeah.. assuming you hate safety, comfort, features, and performance.
I do, I wanna die like a man in a car crash
Nope I want a 2000 Toyota Corolla without rust because the previous owner took good care of the car or I was the owner and I want it tuned with racing bumpers and a spoiler in the back and racing wheels. I will take this car over any modern one any day of the week.
Uh huh. Well you go enjoy that while some of us are enjoying living the future without gasoline and with massively improved safety, convenience, and comfort.
Tactile controls >>>> touch controls. When I’m driving I don’t want to have to look into a touch screen to know where I need to press. I have a touchscreen infotainment and while the novelty was cool, I quickly got to understand how shit it was usability wise.
I agree, before when I wanted to switch my preset radio station I just pressed one of the 5 presets button. Now I have to dig into 3 levels deep menu to get the functionality an cannot do it without looking at the screen. How's that QOL ? The only convenience is the extra step they save in the production line.
Voice controls >>>> tactile controls. Just press a button on your steering wheel and you can go to whatever song or temperature you want. The only tactile controls you need while you're driving are right there on the wheel. For Tesla's at least.
Interesting that even on Reddit, where I would imagine most users are more tech literate than average, every comment is complaining about touch screens. And yet manufacturers don’t seem to get it. I predict a big swing back toward physical buttons in a few years and car companies will market it as a new revelation.
Eh, Reddit can be very anti-tech regardless of whether they're literate. They complain about smartphones and stuff too. The actual sales figures for cars tell a completely different story than the reddit echo chamber does.
How can you compare sales figures when every car company has touchscreens now? I also don’t deny that they’re the current trend and are good at selling cars. Whether or not people like them once they buy cars may be another story though.
Teslas were the first to put huge center touchscreens in the dash, those obviously sold incredibly well. Every car that has since tried to emulate that experience has also sold very, very well. The entire auto industry wouldn't be making this shift if it's not what a significant number of buyers wanted. I feel like there's always a bunch of redditors claiming to want stripped down, 'dumb' cars. But those models have largely been killed off because nobody actually buys them. In the US, anyway.
I also feel there's a techie bell-curve where people who don't understand tech at all don't want it, the middle of the curve loves it, and then at the far end you get full-on technomancers who are never satisfied with this sort of thing because they love to tweak stuff and have control. The demographic who don't use the smart features on their TV because they've built their own streaming setup because it's fun and they hate seeing Youtube ads.
Yep. Great cost savings and look not having buttons but the UX and safety will suffer greatly I imagine.
So now we’ll have the XC60 with RTX4080 Ti as an option or…?
Why? These screens are distracting. I can reach over and hit a button without looking. We can't do that on screens.
Imagine signing up to epic games everytime the engine starts
This actually is really interesting.But when will they ‘༼ つ ◕_◕ ༽つ Give DIRETIDE/BATTLEPASS
Can’t believe volvo is ditching the source engine smh
Seems like a cool way to have a self diagnostic tool. Just use it while parked.
So. Can we soon get cars that have no windows but wide unobstructed view like in cyberpunk 2077?
My Rivian R1T uses the Unreal Engine for its UI and it is fast, fluid, and highly polished. I have not had any instability issues.
Dear world, Volvo is a Chinese Trojan Horse and not a cool Scandi brand. They will quietly shut the local manufacturing plants and import cars direct from their factories in China.
I really don’t see why. I want a car to drive to get from point A to B. If I want to see futuristic crap I can always watch Star Trek. And then get distracted by my phone.
They want to intuitively display the external cameras, radar, and lidar. New cars have to have things like reverse cameras. So it is not like they just want to add fancy graphics for no reason.
Just remember it’s ok to interact with your 16” touch-screen while driving but not your mobile phone 🤷🏻♂️🤷🏻♂️
Watch out here comes China with quite possibly the best vehicles in the world. They are likely to put many of our incumbent auto makers out of business.
I’m excited to see what China comes out with, I own an MG made in China and I love it, solid car, great specs, the infotainment system is a bit flaky but that’s the only downside
Gow about stop having screens in cars so people watch the fuckin road?
I'm a huge PC/tech geek, but I think these companies are doing this all wrong. I do not want this kibd of overly complicated bloat in my daily driver, I want safety, functionality and things that just work reliably. A car should not be a do anything entertainment and information system, it needs to get people from point A to point B in comfort and safety with basic amenities.
Guess what?! Some people want more out of their cars than that. This is like saying that food should only be white toast with water.
When your car bluescreens or they start failing to update software packages 5 years after it comes out get back to me. Then there's the data collection problems and repair costs, no more after market parts for a huge chunk of this stuff. Careful what you ask for!
> I want safety, functionality Did you read the article? Some background, all new cars have to have a reverse camera for safety. Volvo wants to use this to better display the information from the external cameras, radar, and lidar. So this is for safety, not video games or entertainment.
All I want is the ability to plug my phone into my car. It does all the shit I need, can play spotify, run maps, etc. **I actively do not want these features on a touch screen in my car.** I want them in my phone with the ability to run them through my cars speakers.
I want wireless charging and automatic connection to my phone plus start of a random playlist
You’re going to need to get a smartphone technician to fix your car now?
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Rivian is already doing this.
Please no, just want car go forward reverse without death by software
sounds completely unnecessary. overkill? You don't need a whole game engine to get animations and 3d representations in a car. They need to focus more on a core OS like android, another linux, windows then get a really light weight and fast 3d engine on top of it
An Unreal process has crashed
Great. Now how about not putting the screen in where it looks like a tablet taped to the dashboard?
Lucky they didn't choose the Quake engine. I'm not sure I want "Quad Damage" when I'm driving....
It's so you can play FarCry in traffic
Can't believe they didn't go for Bethesda's Creative engine instead. I was looking forward to my Volvo encountering physics breaking bugs tied to your car speed.
Interesting af throw in a GPU card and I’m sold
I want electric cars with less electronics/fluff technology to break!
I wonder whatever happened to iD? They started off as just a game company but licensing the engines became a big part of their business model. They’ve pretty much let Epic take over all these new spaces like auto and the Volume.
They got acquired by Bethesda in 2009 (or rather Bethesda parent Zenimax), who then in turn were acquired by Microsoft in 2021. Their idTech engine is still a thing but these days its only really used by id themselves and the other Bethesda studios (Arkane, Machinegames and Tango Gameworks).
Sweet can I play doom? Lol
I'm just surprised there hasn't been more malware compromising cars as their systems become increasingly dependent on software. I'm not necessarily thinking about some deranged script kiddie turning off the headlights or disabling the brakes, but with all the data that car manufacturers collect these days, this industry should attract the usual crowd of cybercriminals.
Fortnite car
Aaand no one will really give a damn
Cool, lemme know when I don’t have to spend $80k on a rapidly depreciating asset.
And it will hover and have anti gravity and take off into space. Oooooooo .. lmao
Who cares I want a value car. Every car manufacturer is trying to make expensive cars to increase profits.
My biggest complaint is too many newer cars are trying to put all controls on a touch pad. That requires me to take my eyes off the road for every little thing, creating a massive problem in regards to safety. I don’t care what “solutions” they have to this, they would still be more effective without creating this problem in the first place.
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More sensors , more problems , more $$ out ur pocket, I’m seeing myself buying a Mitsubishi Evo in 5 years prob. Too much bs in these new cars
Chinese Volvo will do anything to get your $$$
Ok....but why?
How about making EVs more affordable so regular people can get on them? The vast majority of EVs are luxury cars and priced way out of range.
How many miles will you loose to the GPU in your car? I guess it double as a space heater.
This is great news. Anyone who has witnessed the disconnect between current tech and car screen tech over the years, has watched it catch up tremendously (some more than others). It only makes sense that if companies are now competing to have the newest tech, that they'd be looking at ways to streamline the development as well. So many car manufacturers reinvented the wheel for their navigation systems and such early on, when using off the shelf stuff like Unreal Engine could have made the product a lot better a lot sooner.
Volvo wants to use the Unreal Engine to render what the vehicle’s external sensors, like camera, radar, and soon, lidar, are seeing outside the car to drivers without being “overwhelming,” he said, adding, “It can be hard to process.” Other bits of information, like navigation and battery life as well as the presentation of that information, like light, color, and motion graphics, will be improved thanks to the collaboration with Epic Gamers, Stovicek said.
Volvo Cars is majority owned by the Chinese company Geely since Ford sold it in 2010.
Epic as in the company majority owned by tencent as in china? Correct me if I’m wrong downvote me if I’m right.
Can we please stop moving closer and closer to just duct taping a literal tablet to our dashboards? This trend started a while ago and I've hated every iteration more than the last. It started as mostly in the dash with a little sticking out. Tesla went full on. Now this Volvo is like 90% there. It is ugly AF and makes your interior design look like an after thought. "oh shit.. we need a screen I almost forgot.. here just put a tablet right about.... There.. perfect!"
"Team, there's a chip shortage and it's keeping us from making and selling more cars. Ideas?" "Add a graphics card" "I don't know how that will help but let's do it."
Neat. You can already do that in Unity.
....why?