Safety Features Spurring Demand for Multifunction Connected-Car Display Panels

An increase in safety features for driver monitoring is spurring demand for multifunction TFT-LCD panels used in the automotive instrument cluster, said a DisplaySearch report. Shipments of TFT-LCD panels for the instrument cluster are expected to grow 48 percent this year to 30.2 million units, rising to 50 million units in 2018, DisplaySearch said. Safety functions such as “emergency stop” and “active lane control,” once features “found only in science fiction,” are now becoming more commonplace, said Hiroshi Hayase, DisplaySearch vice president-small/medium displays. With fully automatic driving on the horizon, and with growing requirements for monitoring safety and other functions, TFT-LCD instrument clusters “could soon resemble glass cockpits,” Hayase said. Growing manufacturer demand for automotive TFT-LCD panels in the instrument cluster are led by the U.S., Europe, Japan and other developed nations, he said. In the first half of 2014, Europe's Continental was the top buyer of instrument cluster TFT-LC panels, followed by Ford and Nippon Seiki, Hayase said.