Faces of GM

Tom: From Airplane Cockpits to Vehicle Interiors

March 22, 2010 at 10:42 am

 

Tom leads a team that makes vehicle cockpits safe, easy and pleasing to use

Thomas Seder, Group Manager, Human-Machine Interface Group

 

Interfacing:  I joined GM in 2006, in our research and development organization, to run our Human-Machine Interface Group. 

Role playing: If you look at how our customers interact with GM, most people will think of things like websites, dealers and advertising – and that’s very important.  But what I work on is improving how our customers interact with their vehicles, in a safe, yet enjoyable manner.

My team helps validate and develop technologies to make the driving experience enjoyable, while assuring that motorists keep their focus on the road.  We work with our design and engineering groups to test and validate new interior electronic interfaces – like navigation system operation, radio controls and other infotainment-based tasks. And we do it within hours of their development thanks to the use of a high-tech simulator, which uses seven Christie high-definition projectors (the same used at your favorite movie theater) to create a virtual roadway of scenarios to see if drivers are distracted by the way controls and gauges are laid out in the vehicle cockpit.

I think I bring an interesting perspective to the job.  Before coming to GM, I spent nearly a decade developing avionics systems for commercial airplanes, including the Boeing 747-400, 767-400, 777 and some of the initial concepts for the cockpit of the 787 Dreamliner.  It may seem like a long leap to go from developing the layout of electronics in the cockpits of airplanes to the cabin of a passenger car, but understanding the behavior of vehicle drivers is far more complex than that of airplane pilots, not to mention the fact that our team has to cater to a number of different vehicle brands.

Boeing did not brand their interfaces, so in my past life I did not have to worry about brands.  At GM, a Cadillac interface has to express the design language of the brand.  Likewise, pilots are trained to use the electronics in the cockpit during very defined procedures, but in a car, the driver’s context is always changing, so developing interfaces for vehicles is much more challenging.

My knowledge of avionics is helping GM develop advanced technology solutions that could make driving even safer in the future.  A recent development is the full windshield head-up display system, which turns the windshield of the vehicle into a “enhanced vision system.”  Using an array of camera and sensor systems on the vehicle, the driver can be alerted to potential dangers that lie ahead.  Driving in fog, for instance, a driver may find it hard to know where the edge of the road is.  Using sensors, the vehicle can identify the road edge and project it virtually onto the windshield.  For navigation assistance, the windshield can highlight names of locations on street signs to help improve accuracy and, when you arrive at your destination, the building or house can be outlined on the windshield.  When the system says ‘you have arrived,’ you will know exactly where that is.

My team is busy working to assure that future GM cars and trucks are the safest, yet most enjoyable, from the cockpit standpoint.  If the work we do does not provide the experience that the customer has come to expect, then we have failed.

When I’m not toiling away in the lab, I enjoy working out, running, doing basically anything that revolves around fitness and nutrition.  I also enjoy reading and recently finished Richard Ogle’s Smart World: Breakthrough Creativity and the New Science of Ideasand enjoys revisiting Henry William Chesborough’s Open Innovation: The New Imperative for Creating and Profiting from Technology.  

Secretly, I like to jam out to hip-hop music; I admit that Tupac Shakur is one of my favorite artists.  Good thing I’m equally hard-core about improving the driving experience!

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