DS Automobiles: Gesture Control and Luxury HMI

Posted; September 15, 2020

When DS Automobiles were developing luxury concept car the DS Aero Sport Lounge, they wanted to improve driver experience by reducing the use of touchscreens. That made gesture control powered by Ultraleap’s hand tracking and mid-air haptics the natural choice.

DS Automobiles is French car manufacturer Groupe PSA’s premium marque. Its mission is to deliver luxury vehicles where “savoir-faire meets advanced technology”. 

In February 2020, DS Automobiles launched their new concept car, the DS Aero Sport Lounge. The automotive HMI features a central armrest with gesture control powered by Ultraleap’s advanced hand tracking and mid-air haptic feedback technologies.

For the electric, semi-autonomous Aero Sport Lounge, DS Automobiles were looking to remove buttons and screens, and make the driver experience an intuitive, luxury one. Screens are no longer at the forefront. Elements of navigation and infotainment are projected onto the dashboard while information necessary for driving is shown on the windscreen in augmented reality.

Having worked with Ultraleap to optimize hand tracking and mid-air haptics to suit their vision, the DS design team held an internal showcase of technologies that they felt best reflected the future of in-car human-machine interaction. The response from Groupe PSA decision-makers was overwhelmingly positive.

Both technologies were selected for the DS Aero Sport Lounge project, with Ultraleap's engineers working closely with the brand, design, and user experience teams to deliver the project.

By integrating Ultraleap’s automotive HMI technologies, DS Automobiles were able to reduce the use of touchscreens in the car interior. A traditional cluttered dashboard was replaced by two strips across on the whole surface of the dashboard, onto which infotainment and navigation are projected.

Driver and passengers can use mid-air gesture control to interact, without the need for buttons, knobs or touchscreens. Interaction is as seamless, intuitive, and as futuristic as the interior of the car itself.

Drivers and passengers can control infotainment and navigation by making simple hand gestures in mid-air. As they do so, haptic feedback is projected onto their hand to confirm that commands have been recognised and understood.

Adding haptic feedback to gesture control systems in automotive is proven not only to reduce “eyes off the road” time and mental load, but also results in increases of over 80% in preference scores. In other words, it can be used not only to improve driver control and safety, but also to develop premium experiences.

Ultraleap’s mid-air haptic technology uses phased arrays of ultrasound transducers to create pressure points and tactile sensation on a user’s hands. For the DS Aero Sport Lounge, Ultraleap worked with PSA to develop a custom array that fitted into the vehicle interior design concept.

DS’s vision of travel as an artform places a high value on craftsmanship and puts visual design at the forefront. This means that advanced technology blocks have to be integrated in a way that focuses on design as much as functionality.

High quality, luxury materials (such as straw marquetry on the dashboard) were key to the DS Aero Sport Lounge’s interior. Different array cover materials were tested and assessed to ensure that the Ultraleap array, mounted in the centre armrest, meshed seamlessly with the vision for the rest of the car.

Of course, PSA already had their own tools and established best practices for building automotive HMI. Ultraleap worked within this tool chain, adding to existing expertise by feeding in clear, easy to understand haptic sensations, and a system design specific to Ultraleap’s technology that PSA could integrate, understand, and work with independently. Ultraleap also contributed expertise in 3D interactive design, helping the PSA team to bring their vision to life.

The DS Aero Sport Lounge launched in February 2020, with Car Design News writing, “Parent company PSA’s bid to make the historic DS name feel like a truly standalone new brand took another conceptual step in the right direction with its Aero Sport Lounge” and Top Speed, “Whenever DS flexes its luxury muscle, we should all pay attention.”

The car will be going on a world tour showcasing DS’s design thinking. Ultraleap is proud to have been a part of bringing the vision of this futuristic vehicle to life, and looking forward to working with PSA going forward to bring Ultraleap’s technology into many more vehicles.