Screens occupy a large area of the dashboard inside cars
Images: Publicity / Stellants
There are still those who are tempted by the brightness and technology of multimedia screens, but there are also others who are already imbued with these touch-sensitive screens in cars. The latter such as Thierry Métroz, lead designer of the premium Citroën DS, dominated by the Stellantis group.
To him, although multimedia displays are a huge trend in cars today, they would be “a bit dumb”, as they replace panels, which are part of the brand’s philosophy. This is what he expressed in his conversation with Autocar.
He also noted at the time that these multimedia screens, when turned off, become just black rectangular surfaces. “It’s not very exciting, not very luxurious,” he noted. Therefore, his goal, along with the team, is to “make a revolution”, excluding all screens from the interiors of future Stellantis.
Multimedia displays, especially those that are touch-sensitive, allow automakers to bundle a wide range of functions into a single system that can be shared across the brand’s models. Therefore, eliminating them leads to a new problem: how do you arrange and control these increasingly diverse and complex features in modern cars?
Even if it is not very attractive to those who share Thierry’s opinion, the technology of multimedia displays, in fact, facilitates access to the functions of the car, especially in cases of unaccompanied passenger driving. This is because it brings all the services into one screen, which is most of the time very intuitive.
Additionally, functions such as GPS navigation require a visual component. Faced with this, the designer realizes the new challenge, but states that he still does not have a ready-made solution to offer. Despite this, he believes screen alternatives should be “less intrusive” and provide “more serenity”.
Its position in DS, one of Stellantis’ smaller brands, may limit its expansion into cars not sold in the United States. However, the emergence of this new idea could end up becoming a trend within the group, causing multimedia displays to fall into neglect in their products.
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