CES 2024 may be the big coming out party for AI, but the sexiest beast at the show may well be all the automotive technology and the innovations created around it.
There will be many electric vehicles and combinations of seemingly unrelated technologies, such as electric vehicles and AR systems in cars. Electric vehicles will also transform from simple all-electric mobility platforms to software-defined vehicles or SDVs. These are cars that have more in common with your laptop or smartphone than with the classic gasoline cars of the past.
An SDV can expect over-the-air updates that can redefine the driving experience. Technologies that take advantage of this new fungibility will take center stage at CES 2024. LG Display (which is basically the display supplier for LG Electronics and many other manufacturers of display-based technology) revealed its latest display systems for cars and they are all about the SDVs.
I caught a glimpse of some of the P-OLED-based systems last year, but CES 2024 marks a turning point for automotive technology. Flexible displays are bigger than ever and have a few more visual tricks up their sleeves.
During CES 2024, taking place January 9-12 in Las Vegas, Nevada, LG Display will introduce a selection of lightweight, flexible displays that will sit on large, slide-out, overhead screens for rear-seat passengers, and in covers that cover the entire board. It can display car statistics on one side and passenger entertainment on the other.
Displays that cover curved surfaces like the dashboard will be P-OLED, which means OLED displays on a flexible plastic substrate. Others will be based on LG Display’s Thin OLED technology (there may be some old-school LCD displays as well). However, OLED-based technology should work especially well in cars thanks to its darker blacks (higher contrast) and lighter colors. All of this could help the screens withstand the harshest outdoor sunlight.
My natural question would be about the projection of the latest bat Man film on the passenger side without distracting the driver. However, LG Display’s latest update, “Switchable Privacy Mode” (SPM), prevents the driver from seeing distracting images on the passenger side. The LG display describes it as “shifting” the image away from the driver’s side, which is a little confusing. Are they using some type of lenticular technology? We should have a better idea of what the LG display uses here when we see it in person.
In addition to all the panel-covering displays, LG Display will show more sliding and folding automotive display technologies. Most screens should be touch screens.
A big benefit of bringing SDV together with all this screen real estate is that no one has to permanently define what each screen will do. If a manufacturer covers the interior of its latest electric vehicle with screens on every surface of the car, it can always redefine its purpose with a software update.
Take a look at our CES 2024 hub for the latest show news as it happens. We’ll cover everything from 8K TVs and foldable screens to new phones, laptops, smart home devices and the latest in artificial intelligence, so stay with us for the big stories.
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