Photo: Volvo Cars
Volvo has announced a new collaboration with Epic Games, the company that is known for both its Unreal Engine, and Fortnite, one of the most popular games these past few years. Instead of having Volvo cars introduced in the game or some special edition for them related to the game, the partnership will involve getting the Unreal Engine in the next generation of vehicles from Volvo.
The Swedish marque wants to implement photorealistic, real-time, 3D content in its vehicles with the help of Epic Games' Unreal Engine. The idea is to revolutionize the role of the Human Machine Interface, which is something that you may have heard about before, as it is most often referred to as in its short form, HMI.
Volvo's next-generation electric vehicles will get game-quality graphics inside, and it is all done for more safety, as well as delivering more value. Now, do not dream of gaming in your electric Volvo as you wait for it to charge (that is an idea for the folks at Volvo and Epic, btw), but having the best-looking dashboard and multimedia interface we have ever seen. Volvo already has NVidia and Google as its partners for this.
That would be step one, as the teams also want to integrate high-speed two-way data communications to and from the cloud, as well as integrated data security systems.
The latter description is a bit too broad to clearly explain what is going on, but we already know that the vehicles will get real-time 3D content, so the next-gen gauge clusters should be the finest displays we have ever seen in this role so far.
As Epic Games explains, the Unreal Engine is optimized to work across a wide range of computer platforms, including relatively low power devices (that says a lot about your machine if Fortnite does not run on it, sorry), and those characteristics should be ideal for tightly-packaged HMI hardware that is also cost-sensitive.
The partners have explained that there is an issue with systems that have great graphics and realistic design, as their research has found that the drivers' brain must bridge the gap between it and reality, and this is tricky when the difference between reality and a display is thin.
Real-time visualization would eliminate that difference, which would reduce cognitive load. So, less strain on the driver's brain and eyes from that point.
The new system will first decide how to represent data from external sensors, then improve driver assistance, and the third phase is to discover new ways to provide value to the driver in new ways.
Volvo Cars' Head of User Experience, Thomas Stovicek, compared the process to the debut of the first smartphones, which marked a moment in time when people did not know where the tech would go, and what customers will value most.
The first Volvo car to incorporate the Unreal Engine will be the company's all-electric SUV that will be revealed later this year. Developers can already download Epic Games' Free Field Guide, which will help all those interested understand the basics of the innovations that can be leveraged with the Unreal Engine.
Volvo's next-generation electric vehicles will get game-quality graphics inside, and it is all done for more safety, as well as delivering more value. Now, do not dream of gaming in your electric Volvo as you wait for it to charge (that is an idea for the folks at Volvo and Epic, btw), but having the best-looking dashboard and multimedia interface we have ever seen. Volvo already has NVidia and Google as its partners for this.
That would be step one, as the teams also want to integrate high-speed two-way data communications to and from the cloud, as well as integrated data security systems.
The latter description is a bit too broad to clearly explain what is going on, but we already know that the vehicles will get real-time 3D content, so the next-gen gauge clusters should be the finest displays we have ever seen in this role so far.
As Epic Games explains, the Unreal Engine is optimized to work across a wide range of computer platforms, including relatively low power devices (that says a lot about your machine if Fortnite does not run on it, sorry), and those characteristics should be ideal for tightly-packaged HMI hardware that is also cost-sensitive.
The partners have explained that there is an issue with systems that have great graphics and realistic design, as their research has found that the drivers' brain must bridge the gap between it and reality, and this is tricky when the difference between reality and a display is thin.
Real-time visualization would eliminate that difference, which would reduce cognitive load. So, less strain on the driver's brain and eyes from that point.
The new system will first decide how to represent data from external sensors, then improve driver assistance, and the third phase is to discover new ways to provide value to the driver in new ways.
Volvo Cars' Head of User Experience, Thomas Stovicek, compared the process to the debut of the first smartphones, which marked a moment in time when people did not know where the tech would go, and what customers will value most.
The first Volvo car to incorporate the Unreal Engine will be the company's all-electric SUV that will be revealed later this year. Developers can already download Epic Games' Free Field Guide, which will help all those interested understand the basics of the innovations that can be leveraged with the Unreal Engine.
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