How Yanfeng gave the car interior a brain

Leading interiors supplier Yanfeng has repeatedly heard the same question from automakers since debuting its futuristic Experience in Motion 2020 (XiM20) concept last year: What does this have that we can put into our next-generation models? The answer is inside the recently launched XiM21, which has production-ready features such as zero-gravity seats and its proprietary Smart Cabin Controller that acts as the brain of the interior. Last year Yanfeng, the No. 19 partsmaker in Automotive News Europe's current ranking of global suppliers, decided to combine the R&D activities of its interiors, seating, electronics, safety and exteriors divisions into a new unit called Yanfeng Technology. Han Hendriks, who leads that business, recently spoke to Automotive News Europe Managing Editor Douglas A. Bolduc about what to expect inside next-generation vehicles.

There are so many different functions working in the interior at the same time. How do you get all these separate pieces to move in the right direction?
If you have seen the increase in both digital and automated functions in the interior, you know that to create a meaningful, intuitive in-car experience, it's not just a matter of turning lights or music on and off or increasing the temperature. What is crucial is how these features and functions work together as a whole. The choreography of what happens and when it happens is crucial.

What’s the solution?
Some functions you want to happen in parallel, some you want to happen sequentially. With that vision in mind, we started developing our own domain control unit. We call it our Smart Cabin Controller. It's a central brain of the interior. Based on 70-plus use cases, we have been able to have our Smart Cabin Controller choreograph these functions. That means if you want to create a certain mood or if you want to personalize the interior, you don't have to do everything individually. You have settings or modes you can go to. In addition, things happen behind the scenes. What I mean is that if the vehicle recognizes that you do not have your hands on the wheel it automatically starts to tighten the seat belt. That means the safety features in the interior are also choreographed and running off this Smart Cabin Controller. This is not being done in isolation, but as part of a bigger whole.

How has the Smart Cabin Controller evolved over the last year?
In the XiM20 concept from last year we also created the impression of a central brain where a lot of these functions happen. It was very well choreographed. But to create that effect in the previous vehicle, we had 19 laptops hidden in the trunk running these simulations. As you can imagine, it was quite an effort to keep everything working for demonstration purposes. It was just very complicated. To our great happiness we now have a production-ready chip -- our own Smart Cabin Controller -- that is doing all the work. It's incredibly robust. Therefore, we are not concerned about doing a demonstration in front of any automaker's board of management because we know it's ready.

Did you create that chip in-house?
Yes, we did it 100 percent ourselves.

Many automakers and suppliers have established their own software divisions. Does Yanfeng need to do this?
We need to have strong in-house software capability, which is why we are recruiting software engineers in every region of the world to support our efforts. But, we do not need 20,000 software engineers.

So, you are comfortable with your current level of software expertise?
I wouldn't say that. The software capability we have at the moment needs to grow because the importance of software continues to increase. But, I don't think we need to do 100 percent of our software development in-house.

Why does Yanfeng favor offering small screens in different parts of the interior as shown in the XiM21 over having one big screen like Tesla offers?
If we do the cockpit for the large premium car and the customer wants a big screen we can do that. We have a strategic partnership with Chinese display manufacturer BOE, which is world market leader. We are very close to their R&D. We are very close to their OLED [organic light emitting diodes] development for automotive, including large screens. For the XiM21, however, we decided not to show off the high end of what is technically possible. We decided to create something that is a production reality for larger volume segments. Why not beautifully integrate panel two smaller screens into a larger black? This creates the same effect for significantly less cost. That's the approach we took for XiM21.

What besides cost drove your decision regarding screens in the XiM21?
In the XiM21, we have five screens. We have two curved TFT [thin-film-transistor] screens in front of the driver. We have a flat TFT screen as a central information display between the driver and passenger. This is the screen that can move toward the passenger. The use cases for sharing a screen are very rewarding. For example, the passenger can enter the navigation for the driver and then swipe the content to the driver's screen. In addition, the passenger can read the newspaper or watch a movie. Then we have two curved OLED screens for the rear seat passengers that are hidden in the seat backs.

How is the XiM21 an evolution of the XiM20?
For the XiM20 we did a large amount of research, some of it was proprietary research on quality of life, which is obviously essential if you are creating a small space. When we started work on the XiM20 we engaged with more than 2,000 end consumers in North America, Germany and China to really understand how the perception of quality of life was evolving. We wanted to know how we could translate that back into the interior of a car. We engaged with customers with our initial ideas for that vision and ultimately started to steer our innovation, investments and projects in that direction, resulting in what we call our "smart cabin." A subset of that was executed in XiM21. It shows our vision of the future of interiors. It resulted from our customers asking, "What can we put in our next generation?" The XiM21 answers that question. We are making the vision [from the XiM20] real.

With these two concepts it’s possible to see the evolution and realization of so-called "shy tech," controls that appear when needed then disappear. How important will shy tech be in the future?
There is an increase in features and functions with every generation. That has caused an increasing risk of cognitive overload for the end user. There is just too much going on. With that in mind, you want technology to help you and be visible when you need it. But when you don't need it, you don't want it to be in your face. You don't want it to be a distraction. With Yanfeng owning all the real estate in the vehicle, this is a great opportunity for us to redefine that interior space from an end-consumer’s point of view. This includes digital technology.

Which suppliers can match Yanfeng’s reach?
None of our competitors is as strong in all three regions [Europe, China and North America]. We really build on the strength of each region.

How do you tap into that?
This is a bit of a generalization, but I see us leveraging this global reach every day. Our American colleagues are very creative. They have lots of great ideas. Our European teams, especially in Germany, are very robust in their execution, especially when it comes to engineering. And our China colleagues can go very, very fast.

What do you mean when you say the Chinese go fast?
We are not talking about 10 percent faster or even 30 percent faster. It’s even faster than that. I’ll give you an example. Ten years ago when I was in China visiting our tech center, we had a design review of a seat for a Korean automaker. The head of the design for the automaker was in our tech center and we had the prototype on the table. He was looking at it and he said, "I find the look of the headrest somewhat heavy." So, we started drawing with a marker on the headrest. And then he asks, "When can I see the re-trimmed seat, so we evaluate it?" In my mind, coming from Europe, I was thinking: We need to create a project brief. We need to get some signatures. We need to get the budget approved. We need to plan the work in our prototype shop. I figured it would take three to four weeks. To my surprise, our tech leader there said, "We can we can have the seat ready for you to take a look at by the end of the day. Let's say five o'clock." This is just one example.

And what happened?
At 1:30 p.m., I get a call that the review with this customer was scheduled at 2 p.m. because the seat was ready and this guy was available. I could join in the review if I had time. It's that type of paradigm shift. It is amazing if you can infect your teams around the world with that level of speed. On the other hand, you still want to maintain the robust engineering and technical depth as a strength. That is what our European customers expect. When I speak about the creativity of our teams in North America, again, I’m generalizing a little bit. You have creative people in China and Europe as well as. The strength is combining all of this through the collaboration and cooperation between our businesses.

How has the pandemic changed your management style?
For people to really understand your vision and where you want to drive things your communication skills have to be more robust, more transparent and simpler than ever before. The reason is that you can't be with each other to help each other every day. You need to support employees and customers by providing them with the right tools and methodologies so they can succeed.