Innovative display applications for future automobiles

Flat panel displays in automobiles have a long history, starting with simple segment displays for the depiction of HVAC information, radio station or odometer in the instrument panel. The first full color active matrix LCD has been introduced in cockpits more than 20 years ago, in order to show information of navigation systems or an integrated board computers (e.g. phone, climate, infotainment). In the last two decades, especially display size and display resolution increased continuously and the optical quality in terms of brightness, contrast, color gamut and viewing angle have been improved as well. Fig. 1 shows the display history in Mercedes-Benz cars from 1975 until 2016.