Volkswagen unveiled the new Golf R Touch concept at CES 2015, featuring a vehicle that showcases the next generation of digital dashboards.
Compared to concept cars with fancy flexing displays and impractical touchscreens, Volkswagen Golf R Touch concept focuses its digital dashboard on a 12.8-inch, high-resolution touchscreen that also includes ambient lighting, gesture control and haptic feedback.
Volkswagen's concept car features two other touchscreen displays in addition to the 12.8-inch, 2,560 x 1,700 touchscreen located in the center, specifically an 8-inch Control Center touchscreen beneath the 12.8-inch screen and a 12.3-inch, 1,920 x 720 screen for the vehicle's instruments located in the driver binnacle.
The main screen of the Golf R Touch features customizable blocks, which could display options such as navigation, multimedia, weather, and several others, including an optional 3D representation of the vehicle that reveals the status of components such as the car's windows, lights and others.
Underneath the main screen is a slider trip with proximity sensors and LED lighting. The slider can be utilized by the driver for additional precision in controls, such as in changing the volume of the vehicle's speakers or adjusting the ambient lighting. The slider can also detect the number of fingers being used on it, changing function depending on the functionality being accessed.
However, the touchscreen isn't really required to be touched for operations. Mounted on the roof of the vehicle is a 3D camera that is able to track the hand of the driver, allowing the driver to simply point at a feature and push on it virtually to activate it. The sunroof and seats of the vehicle can be adjusted in the same manner, with the driver requiring to do a gesture to activate the tracking and then doing hand and finger movements to control the sunroof or seat.
The Control Center screen underneath the main screen focuses on HVAC and multimedia options. The screen includes a haptic feedback feature that mimics the feel of pressing buttons and dragging one's finger from one to another. The screen is also capable of recognizing the pressure that the finger uses on the screen.
For the driver's display, the traditional analog instruments have been replaced with the representations on a screen, which can be configured depending on the driver's preferences. Drivers can choose to display only road speed and engine speed, or for casual driving, have media information take up some of the screen's space instead.
The Golf R Touch also features "bass shakers" embedded into the vehicle's front seats, making them physically vibrate in accordance to music.
