(May 21, 2015) LONDON — Passenger car original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) have traditionally embraced the latest technologies for enhancing driving dynamics, safety and convenience. This trend will continue, with shift-by-wire technology likely to be adopted in premium segment cars globally and across volume segments in mature markets such as North America, Germany and Japan by 2020.

Although the technology is currently expensive, commoditization will bring down the cost of these systems and make it ready for the mass market.

New analysis from Frost & Sullivan, Key Focus Areas for Driving Interface Systems for Passenger Cars, expects passenger car OEMs to adopt driving interface systems in favor of ride, handling and safety improvements, in addition to mass reduction and enhanced fuel efficiency.

"Passenger car OEMs are striving to provide better driving dynamics, stability and safety by integrating driving interface systems. These can monitor the state of vehicles and its surroundings and dynamically optimize traction and ride performance," said Frost & Sullivan Automotive & Transportation Senior Research Analyst Kamalesh Mohanarangam.

"While electronic transmission shift is being used as one of the enabling technologies for future autonomous self-driving vehicles and driver assistance systems, haptic feedback is being employed to enrich the driving skills of drivers."

However, the high cost of road surface sensing technologies and haptic feedback pedals is likely to confine these systems to premium passenger cars OEMs. For pedals, position sensors based on optical systems or incremental encoders are available but their performance in terms of cost, reliability and tolerance to high temperature has prevented large-scale adoption.

"The shift from the manual to automated mode of driving will redefine the relevance of vehicle dynamics control interfaces and systems," noted Mohanarangam. "With the advent of level 4 automated vehicles, pedals, steering wheels and gear shift levers are expected to be replaced with touchscreens, driver monitoring systems, and advanced voice interfaces."