For the 2024-2026 car, buttons will be added to the steering wheel to improve driver safety and vehicle ease of use while the car is in motion. The split for interactions is as follows:
Dashboard:
Ideally interacting with the dashboard controls should only be needed when the car is stopped, and the driver does not need their hands on the wheel.
The Dashboard PCB will be behind the physical dashboard. Additionally, display, fan,
Interaction | Rationale |
|---|---|
| This is only used upon the initial start of the car and at the very end of the session. It should not be interacted with while the car is in motion. |
| Gears (forward, neutral, reverse) should only be changed when the car is stopped. A Joystick may be considered, although more connections would be required. |
| This definitely should not be interacted with while the car is moving as it could cause some undesired behavior as the systems come back online. |
| Hazard light functionality is required by regulations but is unlikely to be needed very frequently, so this can be relegated to the dashboard. |
| For safety. We don’t need this but good to have. |
| According to @Kaden Nguyen , one fan isn’t enough to cool the driver. Two would be good to start with. |
| Redundant on the dashboard/display just in case |
Display:
Interaction | Rationale |
|---|---|
Velocity/Speed (mph) | Driver needs to see speed |
Rear View | Regs |
Peripheral View (right, left) | Driver needs to see blind spots (not required, but a nice functionality) |
Current/Voltage/Temp Battery/Temp Battery | debugging |
State of Charge | debugging |
Gear (FW/BW/REV) (FW/BW/REV) | Driver needs to see gear state as it might differ from switch |
Contactor State | debugging |
Ignition State | Driver needs to see car state |
Heartbeat | debugging – in case display freezes |
Cruise Control Indicator | debugging |
Light Status Indicator | debugging |
Current/Voltage/Temp Battery | debugging |
Current/Voltage/Temp Moco | debugging, critical fault sensing |
Turn Signal Indicator/hazards | debugging, Driver needs to know which turn signal is blinking |
 Drawn out display with dashboard | Display: Other info refers to everything other than rear and blindspot/peripheral cam feed |
Steering Wheel:
Controls that the driver may want to use while the car is in motion should be close to their reach on the steering wheel.
Interaction | Rationale |
|---|---|
| We may not always want to use regenerative braking. The exact implementation still requires a lot of research and it will need a lot of tuning in alignment with the mechanical brakes. In case of any unpredictable or undesirable behavior, the driver should have the ability to quickly disable/enable regen. Same as One Pedal Mode – have a led light to indicate on the dashboard and on the display. |
| Cruise Control is a feature that allows the driver to drive without their foot constantly on the pedal. To further this goal, we can also allow the driver to enable this feature without moving their hands away from the wheel.
We are no longer using increment and decrement because it is more intuitive to have the driver simply go that speed and set it. |
| One Pedal Mode is an optional drive mode that allows the driver to drive using only the accelerator pedal where pushing down accelerates and letting go breaks. The driver should be able to enable this feature mid-drive and therefore should have access to it without taking their hands off of the wheel. |
| Turns signal will be a three position switch on the steering. This is the “gold standard.“ If using buttons, there would be no way to turn off the indicators without having to push the button again, which is more work for the driver because they would have to check the display and then hit the button as opposed to simply toggling by feel.
Previously, we wanted to use buttons: Turn signals are turned on frequently while the car is in motion. We previously handled this with a three-way switch on the dashboard which required the driver to take their hands off of the wheel. We will now have two buttons directly on the steering wheel to activate the turn signals (similar to a Tesla). |
| Need a driver on the dashboard to be able to |