New vehicle, maybe like a new Defender ish

[The Badger]

Ok, I thought to make a post about this.

Maybe some of the regular forum posters remember that about 7 years ago I built my own 110 from chassis up, so was asking all sort of questions about details etc etc (again thanks for all the help, it would have been a lot harder with you all).

So, fast forward to now, and I have ended up studying a PhD that is fully funded by JLR, researching and thinking about what the next generation want in a vehicle human machine interface, in another words the dashboard etc etc stuff we interact with when driving to control the car. Im not really the academic type, but it's a twist in my career that is interesting, and I could not say no to the offer really.

No, I have not seen the new thing that may be the evolution of the Defender, however I have been thinking about what made the current Defender so great and 'if' there was a new one, how can it keep the rugged, simple, hackable, modular ideas that the current one has, but for the new generations.

My research is not Defender specific, but it could (that would be nice right) influence what's next.

Anyhow, so I thought to throw it out on here, what do you all think?

[miketomcat]

Space to add stuff and power points 12v/usb. Spring to mind.

Mike

[=jon=]

Less touchscreens. Having car controlled by touch is all very fancy and great when you are stationary, but a complete pain in the behind when you are moving!

The current trend appears to be to drive everything from touch (eg. Tesla) - where really you can't beat having physical controls that you can reach for and operate without having to take your eyes off the road...

[landroversforever]

Less touchscreens. Having car controlled by touch is all very fancy and great when you are stationary, but a complete pain in the behind when you are moving!

The current trend appears to be to drive everything from touch (eg. Tesla) - where really you can't beat having physical controls that you can reach for and operate without having to take your eyes off the road...

This. Real buttons and dials that you can actually feel for without having to look across.

[Bowie69]

Yep, and buttons the decals don't wear off from gritty fingers, and are wipe-clean.

I think unfortunately, investigating for 'what the next generation' wants on here, will only get you replies that hark back to the olden days -rightly so in my opinion, but you know there has to be progress somewhere

[elbekko]

There's one thing that would completely open up the aftermarket on new vehicles: an open CANbus specification! Hell, even if it's only for a subset of the system, being able to build new modules that interact with the rest of the vehicle would be brilliant.

Couple that with a modular dashboard (think DIN with flat surfaces/easy curves, not proprietary slots and dashboard lines that are hard to replicate without the original moulds)

Then you can have aftermarket manufacturers produce a panel with buttons that replaces the touchscreen. Or you can grab an Arduino with a CAN board and do it yourself.

[landroversforever]

There's one thing that would completely open up the aftermarket on new vehicles: an open CANbus specification! Hell, even if it's only for a subset of the system, being able to build new modules that interact with the rest of the vehicle would be brilliant.

Couple that with a modular dashboard (think DIN with flat surfaces/easy curves, not proprietary slots and dashboard lines that are hard to replicate without the original moulds)

Then you can have aftermarket manufacturers produce a panel with buttons that replaces the touchscreen. Or you can grab an Arduino with a CAN board and do it yourself.

Open CAN would be quite nice... but that doesn't stop clever people messing with CAN as it is. Friend has built his own alarm for his model plane van.... part of which scrambles the CAN signals .

[The Badger]

The modular aspect is very key I feel, I mean the defender is modular, we hack, add, change etc etc, it's part of the charm.

How the next gen hack, is quite digital, but that's not to say real buttons are not relevant, as they are for reasons already mentioned above.

Old is new, new is old, old is new again, at some point Defender will be more fashionable, and then not. I know that's all irrelevant to most of us on here as I think the word fashion maybe does not apply....

Real buttons are great for simple actions, digital stuff is way more complex hence such simple buttons are not so useful. But, they can be used to scroll, select and click, even if there is a touchy feely screen thing.

[elbekko]

Open CAN would be quite nice... but that doesn't stop clever people messing with CAN as it is. Friend has built his own alarm for his model plane van.... part of which scrambles the CAN signals .

Of course, but being able to look up the message for a certain function instead of having to do it by trial and error would make things so much easier.

Scrambling the CAN sounds fun, but potentionally problematic, who knows what you're sending to what...

[Snagger]

Touch screen is no good if strong sunlight is shining on it/reflection off it, and if the screen fails, then you lose everything it controls, whereas a single switch failure is rarely more than a nuisance.

As you said, modular is key so that hard tops, soft tops and such can be interchanged. Flat interior surfaces make for better equipment and storage installations. LR designed in so many rust traps that it can't be hard to improve on corrosion resistance. It would also be useful if the underside and engine bay were configured in a relatively open way that allows easy drainage and pressure washing, and simple maintenance without having to remove huge amounts to get at something that should be simple to swap (D3 clutch and belts come to mind).