While vehicle cabins continue to be equipped with more and more digital displays and touchscreen panels that keep growing in size, Jaguar Land Rover is working on completely swapping out the dash and body panels with curved OLED screens.
Instead of simply replacing the instrument panel and cabin controls with digitalised displays, Jaguar Land Rover is researching how to replace entire structural components -- the dash, the body panels -- with electronic elements using LESA (Lightweight Electronics in Simplified Architecture) technology.
This tech is based on that of flexible wearables and OLED televisions; entire panels throughout car interiors could potentially be replaced with highly customisable screens and touch sensitive displays that both streamline the cabin and offer customers 100% button-free designs.
According to the company, digitalising these architectural elements would allow for "customisable ambient lighting systems, body controls, wraparound button-less dashboards and advanced fabric/leather heated steering wheels."
Since these screens would replace a great deal of the wiring that would otherwise be necessary for physical controls, the weight of in-car electronics would be greatly reduced -- possibly up to 60% -- especially since this tech is compatible with non-metallic materials like wood. As a result, EV (electric vehicle) ranges can be increased, and the fuel efficiency can be improved.
Thus far, LESA technology has been successfully demonstrated in a prototype which judges referred to as "the future of electronics in the car." When the tech will be advanced enough to be integrated into production vehicles has yet to be revealed.