The Next Generation MMI from Audi: Top-Level Multimedia and Communication

• Introducing a new generation of the market’s best system
• Even higher performance and easier operation
• First appearance stateside in the all-new Audi Q5

HERNDON, Va., Jan 28, 2009 - Audi is increasing its lead in infotainment technology even further. A new generation of the MMI, the supreme solution for multimedia, communication and operation, has been announced. With a high-capacity hard disk, a DVD drive and an automotive grade NVIDIA™ chip for graphics processing, it is much more versatile and its performance is higher than ever before. The new MMI’s first appearance will be in the all-new Audi Q5.

New joystick control- The basic operating principle has been retained, but the innovative joystick makes it even more convenient. This joystick is located on the central knob and can be moved in eight directions within the navigation map screen – with high precision and the sense of quality that the Audi driver expects. For example, now you can easily navigate to a location on the screen and just point and click for directions.

New Display- For the new MMI, Audi has provided a large TFT display measuring seven inches from corner to corner. It is located in an ergonomically favorable position high up on the center console.

With the very high resolution of 800 x 480 pixels and LED backlighting, this monitor supplies an exceptionally sharp image with plenty of contrast. Even in poor light conditions, the colors are intense and the text is crisp.

3D map displays-The driver can choose between the conventional two-dimensional view and the new 3D images. These modes feature a birds-eye perspective of the map area, with plenty of carefully presented detail including real-time traffic information, and while in 3D orientation, the various topographies are shown throughout the entire US. Another new feature is that the outlines of buildings in many major cities are displayed to help with orientation while navigating. Additionally, the most important buildings in large cities appear in near-authentic-detail, as well as several branded point-of-interest icons.

Vocal Input- If the driver uses voice input to load a destination into the navigation system; this can now be done without spelling out the individual letters. The new MMI understands complete words in a number of languages.

The same applies to the new high-performance telephone directory, which can store up to 2,000 entries each with five numbers for each user. The telephone is even more convenient to use with the new MMI. Additionally a speech-to-text engine is used so you no longer have to create voice tags for every name in your directory. A digital voice processor ensures the best hands-free quality; while voice outputs are through the car’s sound system.

Music and Entertainment: the DVD drive-The new MMI has an integral drive for video DVDs; the new joystick function on the control knob is especially practical for this, as it enables you to quickly navigate title menus and screen selections. When played back with the optional sound systems, DVD soundtracks can be heard in Dolby Digital 5.1 multi-channel sound and other frequently used formats. For safety reasons, the picture is only displayed when the car is standing still. The system also plays music from CDs and SD cards, including those coded MP3, AAC and WMA.

Additional technical modules have made the MMI even more attractive. The optional Audi Music Interface makes a perfect connection with an mp3 player, for instance the customer’s iPod. The complete menu structures and contents appear on the MMI display, and control is at the MMI terminal or the multifunctional steering wheel.

The Sirius Radio display has also been updated on the new MMI. Without interrupting music, or changing stations, users are now able to preview the artist and track title on other Sirius stations.

MMI Tech- One of its key components is the hard disk; 10 GB of its 40 GB capacity can be used as a jukebox, to store up to 2,000 tracks, all sorted for easy access. The hard disk also contains navigation data and an electronic logbook for the car.

Two processors, an 800 MHz chip and a 500 MHz digital signal processor, allow all applications – navigation, voice input, telephone and audio functions – to operate simultaneously. Using the 3D graphics processor from Californian 3D chip manufacturer NVIDIA™ gives the MMI access to the third dimension. Audi has used this chip’s outstanding performance with graphics for the first time to provide a genuine 3D map display – a ‘digital topographical model’. With this processor, the screen display sets new standards with its attractive display layout, high resolution, and presentation quality, smooth animation and cross fading.

Source: Audi Press Release

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Nissan Interaction design team Suffers to Make Future Cars Simple and Painless

– Unique interior-concept prototype developed from painstaking research –

TOKYO (February 27, 2009) – It is almost painful to watch Nissan designer Naoki Yamamoto get out of a test car. To understand the challenges aging drivers face, the 39-year-old interaction specialist is encased in a proprietary “aging suit” that gives him the mobility and faculties of a driver twice his age. “Sure, it’s uncomfortable,” Yamamoto says, “but to really understand a problem you have to feel it in your bones.”

At an “Interaction Design Workshop” today at the Nissan Design Center in Atsugi, Japan, Yamamoto demonstrated to reporters one of many methods Nissan’s Interaction Design team employs in a continuing effort to make future car interiors easier to understand and more comfortable to use.

Interaction design covers all aspects of the interface between people and cars. How do we understand which knob does what – and how it’s supposed to work? Where do we expect to find it? How can one design meet the diverse needs of people big and small, strong and weak all over the planet? And how does the experience make people feel?

Feelings – emotional responses to what people see, touch, hear and smell in a car – are absolutely critical to the success of any design. Feelings are also inherently and frustratingly subjective – which is why quantifying and analyzing them is among the paramount tasks of interaction design. For example, how much resistance feels right when turning a knob? What makes leather feel richer than a synthetic alternative?

Careful observation is vital, and Nissan’s interaction designers spend countless hours looking for signs of awkwardness as people interact with their vehicles. When not physically uncomfortable – as wearing the “aging suit” – the work can be mind-numbing. “Some days we watch hours and hours of video of different people doing the same thing,” says Associate Chief Designer Etsuhiro Watanabe says. “But the biggest challenge is figuring out what to look for.”

Sometimes the remedy can be ridiculously simple – like putting a small arrow by the fuel gauge so rental-car drivers don’t have to get out to see which side the tank is on.

But as on-board electronic functions proliferate, interiors become ever more complex and the need for interaction design becomes acute. So in 2005 Nissan created the Interaction Design Team to ensure logic and simplicity are not sacrificed. This move represents a key “Life on Board” initiative in Nissan’s four-fold technology strategy. (Safety, Environment and Dynamic Performance are the other three.)

“We’re a small team relative to the whole Nissan Design deparment,” Watanabe says. “But consistent with what we call ‘the Nissan Way’ we work cross-functionally with other teams in Design, Engineering, Product Planning, Marketing and Sales as well as Purchasing. It’s hard to know exactly what competitors are doing, but we suspect we’re among the leaders in our field. And our results are quickly incorporated in new products.”

Centerpiece of today’s workshop was BUI-2 – as in, “Best Usability Interior” – second-stage prototype of a unique interior concept incorporating leading-edge ergonomic features developed from the Interaction Design team’s research efforts.

Until you open the door, BUI-2 looks any other current-model Nissan Note. Even once behind the wheel, the interior layout feels so logical and familiar it takes a moment to feel surprised by what you find.

“That’s exactly the reaction we want,” Watanabe says. “What you see as you get behind the wheel should be instantly understandable and reassuring. You shouldn’t need a manual to know what to do next.”

The steering wheel itself is the first thing you notice: a compact oval that impedes neither knees nor sightlines to the instrument panel. With spokes linked to the steering column at 4:30 and 7:30 (as on a clock face) fingers find a comfortable grip at 3 and 9 o’clock (the Nissan-recommended posture). And yet palms find no resistance as they slide around the wheel when turning.

Hands need not leave the wheel at 3 and 9 o’clock as all controls on the steering-wheel hub – such as audio and cruise control – are within easy thumb’s reach. The left index finger can just as easily operate an electronic gearshift paddle at 10 o’clock. As the eye intuitively follows the finger, gear selections are sensibly displayed right next to the paddle.

Once the car begins to move, the eyes need never travel far. All drive-critical information is clearly displayed within the driver’s field of vision, between the top of the steering wheel and the road ahead. Video screens at left and right of the main cluster show what’s happening at the front bumper corners with sightlines so natural you might think they were windows. And glare is never an issue thanks to displays shaded by an arched dash.

Peripheral controls such as onboard navigation, climate control and mirror adjustment are laid out with equally intuitive logic: immediately visible, comprehensible and right where you would expect them.

Nowhere is the interaction challenge greater than with two functions that have frustrated generations of car designers: “ingress” and “egress.” Getting in and out of a car is physically awkward – especially for today’s older and larger users. But the Nissan team’s methodical approach is yielding results.

“Egress,” getting out of a car, is a complex, multi-step process that involves pulling a small handle, pushing a large and necessarily heavy door, sliding legs sideways, then using arms and legs in an effort to step out and down at the same time.

Nissan’s Interaction Design team has focused on the first steps in this process.

“Watch how different people grasp the same door handle,” Watanabe told workshop participants viewing a research video. “Men wrap fingers round the latch and push the door out with their elbows. Women use one hand for the latch and push with the other. People approach left and right side doors differently.”

“What we observed,” Watanabe continued, “is that since fingers approach the latch from several different angles, it has to be ergonomically efficient no matter how you grasp it.”

That insight led to the team’s simple but elegant oyster-shaped latch design used in BUI-2, and already incorporated in the new Fairlady Z and Nissan Cube.

Going a step further, the team realized users needed a better grip when swinging the unlatched door. That led to an easy-to-grip molded ridge running along the inside of each door parallel to the bottom of the window. Just below the latch is a sculpted knob that can be grasped to swing the door open or shut.

In the ongoing struggle for ease of egress, the Interaction team’s latch, ridge and knob comprise a significant advance that will quickly benefit customers.

“Sometimes our painstaking efforts may not be obvious to the customer,” says Watanabe. “But our work is very gratifying when we’re able to make life on board better for Nissan’s customers.”

Source: Nissan News

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About Nissan Green Program 2010

Nissan Motor Co., Ltd.’s (NML) mid-term environmental action plan, Nissan Green Program 2010 (NGP 2010), is designed to fulfill Nissan’s environmental philosophy of “symbiosis of people, vehicles and nature” and contribute to a sustainable mobile society. NGP 2010 is specifically focused on reducing CO2 emissions both from Nissan products as well as from day-to-day corporate activities.

Nissan is focused on three core areas related to the environment: reducing CO2 emissions; reducing exhaust emissions; and accelerating recycling efforts.

Highlights of Nissan Green Program 2010 include:

• Incorporating CO2 reduction as one of the key management performance indicators.
• Launch a “three-liter car” with a target of 2010; a gasoline-fueled car that runs 100 kilometers on three liters of fuel.
• Expand availability of Flexible Fuel Vehicles (FFV) within the next three years.
• Launch a Nissan electric vehicle early in the next decade.
• Develop an original Nissan hybrid vehicle targeted for launch in FY2010.
• Accelerate development of plug-in hybrid technology.
• By 2010, reduce CO2 emissions from global manufacturing plants by 7% (per unit) compared to 2005.

“The Nissan Green Program 2010 provides a transparent view of Nissan’s future commitments to all aspects of environmental management,” said Toshiyuki Shiga, Chief Operating Officer, NML. “Nissan Green Program 2010 has been designed to address immediate challenges as well as creating the foundation towards a long-term sustainable business model.”

Source: Nissan Press Release

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Nissan Starts Vehicle Testing of New Fuel-Cell Technology

TOKYO (February 25, 2009) — Nissan Motor Co., Ltd. announced today that it has started testing a vehicle with a next-generation fuel-cell stack.

Announced in August, the new fuel cell unit is 25% smaller than the previous model and provides 1.4 times the power output, 130Kw against 90kw before. With half the amount of platinum in its electrodes and a more durable catalyzer, it will also last longer and be less expensive to build.

Working toward commercial introduction of the fuel-cell stack, Nissan began onboard testing in late 2008, and in February this year started cold-weather testing at its Hokkaido Proving Ground.

Nissan will show the technology at FC Expo 2009*, one of the world’s largest fuel-cell exhibitions, scheduled for Tokyo Big Sight February 25-27.

The next-generation fuel-cell stack is part of a range of eco-friendly technologies that Nissan is pursuing under Nissan Green Program 2010, a plan focused on developing new technologies, products and services leading to real-world reductions in CO2 emissions, cleaner emissions, and expanded recycling of resources.

Source: Nissan Press Release

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