Breakdown of Driver Display Features

The following is a general outline of the different features/elements found in our driver display and if there is any special context with regards to MS XIV.

Speedometer

• gauge that measures and displays the instantaneous speed of a vehicle.

• The speed is of highest priority on our driver display

• In the first iteration of the design, a dial was not used but after the usability testing session with a second design that had a dial, we chose to implement one

  • Testers found that having a dial was something they were used to and thought it was nice to see some visual to indicate and increase/decrease in speed rather than just numbers changing on the display

Lights

• The driver display will have a visual indicator, which will turn on when the DRLS are in use

• MS XIV has daytime running lights (DLRS), and a specific symbol is used to represent these types of lights (see below)

• Previous iterations of the design use the high beam headlamp symbol and we have changed it to the DRLS symbol

Open

Cruise Control

• MS XIV will support cruise control and the driver display will have a visual indicator that will be turned on when cruise control is enabled

• We are still deciding about whether to use a symbol or to explicitly have it in words in case not everyone can interpret the cruise control symbol quickly (leaning towards just plain text)

Gears

• A typical vehicle can shift gears between P-R-N-D (Parking-Reverse-Neutral-Drive)

• MS XIV will only support Reverse, Neutral and Drive, where the car will be in the neutral state when parked

State of Charge

• The amount of charge relative to a battery’s capacity - essentially the remaining power left in a battery

• This information is not defined up front and so the Strategy team must model it to predict the state of the battery

• MS XIV’s driver display will show the state of charge at all times in the form of a battery symbol whose fill will change depending on the state and will have a percentage accompanying it only when the car is charging

• You can learn more here → Battery Items relevant to Strategy

• Two symbols will also be used to indicate the method of charging

  • Plug icon when the car is charging via the grid

  • Sun icon when the car is charging via the sun (i.e. solar panels are working…)

Turn Signals

• Turn signals are enabled and will blink in time with the turn lights to indicate which direction the car is turning

• Currently only a visual indicator and we will investigate whether a noise can accompany the blinking so our display does nto only rely on visual indicators

Recommended Speed

• The optimal speed the driver should be driving at in a given leg of the race

• A model for this is currently be developed by the Strategy team and will only be used if the length of the race is most appropriate (i.e. the longer the route, the more necessary this feature may be- but we know that the ASC 2020 route was shorter and may have not required this feature)

Range

• Refers to the distance an electric vehicle can travel before the battery needs to be recharged

• A model has not yet been developed for this - if it cannot be created, we will instead display the battery percentage at all times.