Positioning of infotainment screen in cars
Don’t disturb the driver from paying attention to the road, when is watching the screen.
Reduce tiredness while driving.
I think these are the most important aspects when deciding where to put the multimedia screen inside the car. Moving your eyes from the road, in high traffic situations could lead to dangerous situations.
If we study the human eyes field of vision (angle of vision), the image below, we see that:
A) lateral field of view is 60 degrees in total, 30 degrees to left, 30 degrees to right without moving the eyes.
B) vertical field of view is 25 degrees upward and 15 degrees downward from the straight line of sight.
Current state
If we look at this picture, we can see that starting from the position of eyes, red dot, the angle (a) between the straight line of sight, red arrow, and the sight to multimedia screen, yellow arrow, is greater than 15 degrees, without having a good measurement it looks to be around 30 degrees.
This means the driver has to completely take the eye from the road to look at the screen.
In another example where the screen is mounted above the dashboard, we can see that the vertical angle between the straight line of sight and the line of sight to the multimedia screen is less than 10 degrees.
An improvement for the safety of driving and comfort.
How should be
The screen shall be positioned in such a way that looking to it doesn’t increase fatigue and doesn’t lead to dangerous situations by taking the eyes from the road.
How can be done ?
We would need to define a maximum sight movement on the vertical and horizontal axis. Based on studies done and what A maximum of 15 degrees limit for the downward vertical plane and maximum 30 degrees for the horizontal plane should be chosen. The lower, the better.
Having these values set, we can conclude that:
To have the lowest movement of eyes to see the screen, we deduct that the best placement of the screen is:
1) above the dash
2) further towards the windshield
One example is found in the latest models of Mazda, such as in the picture below.
In the case above, to have a look on the screen from looking straight ahead, the eyes should move less than 10 degrees down and maximum 30 degrees. In this way, if the driver is looking at the screen, everything that happens on the road is still in his field of view.
If this approach is used, then the touchscreens can be used, as the screen is far from the driver. So other means of accessing the system shall be used, such as controls near gear lever OR 1 button to scroll and select options in the menu and 1 button to go back, placed on the steering wheel.
