The automotive industry continues to be a hotbed of innovation, with activity driven by connected cars, dependable interface between driver and vehicle, enhancing safety, accurate information and growing importance of technologies such as bifocal plane AR head-up display (HUD), oblique projection AR HUD, and dual vision laser holographic AR HUD. In the last three years alone, there have been over 1.2 million patents filed and granted in the automotive industry, according to GlobalData’s report on Cloud in Automotive: HUD dashboards.
However, not all innovations are equal and nor do they follow a constant upward trend. Instead, their evolution takes the form of an S-shaped curve that reflects their typical lifecycle from early emergence to accelerating adoption, before finally stabilising and reaching maturity.
Identifying where a particular innovation is on this journey, especially those that are in the emerging and accelerating stages, is essential for understanding their current level of adoption and the likely future trajectory and impact they will have.
290+ innovations will shape the automotive industry
According to GlobalData’s Technology Foresights, which plots the S-curve for the automotive industry using innovation intensity models built on over 619,000 patents, there are 290+ innovation areas that will shape the future of the industry.
Within the emerging innovation stage, EV discharge prediction, manufacturability analysis, and AI-assisted CAD are disruptive technologies that are in the early stages of application and should be tracked closely. Vehicle head-up displays (HUDs), gesture-sensing AR/VR interfaces, and instrument cluster dashboard are some of the accelerating innovation areas, where adoption has been steadily increasing. Among maturing innovation areas are HUD dashboards and remote trip monitoring, which are now well established in the industry.
Innovation S-curve for cloud in the automotive industry
HUD dashboards is a key innovation area in cloud
A head-up display (HUD) presents the relevant information right in the line of sight of driver. Drivers can customise the information such as warning signals, speed and indicator arrows for navigation to be displayed on the screen without looking down to the instrument collection or the secondary display.
GlobalData’s analysis also uncovers the companies at the forefront of each innovation area and assesses the potential reach and impact of their patenting activity across different applications and geographies. According to GlobalData, there are 20+ companies, spanning technology vendors, established automotive companies, and up-and-coming start-ups engaged in the development and application of HUD dashboards.
Key players in HUD dashboards – a disruptive innovation in the automotive industry
‘Application diversity’ measures the number of different applications identified for each relevant patent and broadly splits companies into either ‘niche’ or ‘diversified’ innovators.
‘Geographic reach’ refers to the number of different countries each relevant patent is registered in and reflects the breadth of geographic application intended, ranging from ‘global’ to ‘local’.
Patent volumes related to HUD dashboards
Source: GlobalData Patent Analytics
Denso is a key player in HUD dashboards and has filed 83 patents. Denso displays largest HUD images to be used in a vehicle environment. Its system although in a slightly smaller format has already been installed in Kia’s new K9 luxury car. The company is also in talks with US and European manufacturers over adopting the system. Yazaki, Panasonic, Toyota Motor and Hyundai Motor are the other key players in HUD dashboards
To further understand how cloud is disrupting the automotive industry, access GlobalData’s latest thematic research report on Automotive.
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GlobalData, the leading provider of industry intelligence, provided the underlying data, research, and analysis used to produce this article.
GlobalData’s Patent Analytics tracks patent filings and grants from official offices around the world. Textual analysis and official patent classifications are used to group patents into key thematic areas and link them to specific companies across the world’s largest industries.
