Mechanical Marvel

The launch of the EXP 15 concept car has allowed Bentley to showcase a wealth of new interior UX ideas that bridge the gap between the physical and digital worlds. These ideas, many of which originated from our creative collaboration with Bentley over the past nine years, since 2016, will pave the way for Bentley’s next-generation production vehicles. Throughout the car, the boundaries between digital and physical elements are deliberately blurred, enabling a seamless transition between the delivery of information and the interior’s overall ambience.

In one of the most immediately obvious examples of this radical new approach, integrated into the transparent centre screen lies the ‘Mechanical Marvel’. This feature, developed by DCA in collaboration with Bentley, exists in the space between the digital and physical worlds.

The physical Mechanical Marvel, combined with a transparent touchscreen, enables Bentley to offer a new medium for presenting information, enhancing the user experience. The touchscreen can display technical, detailed 2D content and, in an instant, transition to transparency. In doing so, the screen reveals the Mechanical Marvel’s movement and interactive lighting, as well as the more reassuring, high-level content it communicates. The true magic occurs when the two different display styles combine to present in-car information that is both beautiful and intuitive.

Whether acting as the car’s digital assistant, indicating the car’s direction of travel, the state of its electrical charge, speed, time, calendar, or simply acting as the centrepiece of the car’s user experiences, the combination of on-screen graphics with the Mechanical Marvel’s movement and lighting allows Bentley’s designers to craft content that enhances the user experience and passenger connection to the car.

The Mechanical Marvel exists in the space between the digital and physical worlds.

By going beyond the boundaries of flat screens, we can now deliver a user interface that’s not confined solely to a two-dimensional screen. Engaging user experiences are created through an exquisite interplay of 2D graphics, 3D light and movements within the mechanism.

Vehicles now have the potential to display a wealth of user information, and this is only going to increase. With all of this information vying for attention, user experiences have the potential to become overwhelming.

The ‘Mechanical Marvel’ features a ‘3D Interface’ that enables the presentation of information in various ways, unrestricted by the constraints of a 2D interface. This ability can allow Bentley to take information off the dashboard screen and present it in more intuitive ways. Ultimately, the goal is a ‘digital detox’ that reduces users’ cognitive load and enables them to focus on enjoying the journey. The Mechanical Marvel can sometimes play centre stage in the user experience and other times be invisible in the background.

In the same way that a quick glance at an analogue watch can reassure the wearer that they are on schedule without registering the exact time, so the background behaviour of the Mechanical Marvel can, for example, instantly communicate that you have enough charge to make it home comfortably, whilst full range details can be quickly accessed on request.

As Robin Page, Bentley’s Design Director, said when referring to the Mechanical Marvel: “We think people are going to get fed up with a fully digital experience and are pining for physical mechanical elements too. By combining the two, you can get the best of both worlds. It’s almost like wearing a beautiful mechanical watch on one wrist and a digital watch on the other. Imagine the magical experience you would get if mechanical and digital are overlayed together.”

Bentley is now on a journey to exploit these new opportunities. This has given their in-house UX team the freedom to rethink how particular information can be presented and how experiences can be conveyed.

Early in the development of the Mechanical Marvel, DCA created a fully interactive, software-driven digital twin of the mechanism, enabling us to iterate quickly and identify refinements in the physical design of the assembly.

The digital twin was capable of accurately simulating movement, lighting, and the graphics displayed on the transparent OLED screen. However, we quickly realised that CGI animations could only take us so far. To truly bring the concept to life, we needed to build a fully representative concept demonstrator — complete with working systems, mechanics, software, and electronics.

The goal is to reduce the users’ cognitive load.

Large quantities of intricate parts were designed, produced and assembled with great precision. The mechanical and electrical elements were tightly integrated to minimise the size of each blade assembly, allowing a greater number of blades — and therefore a higher “mechanical pixel” resolution.

Custom electronics were developed to maximise robustness, simplify wiring, and improve serviceability. The prototype was designed to allow rapid replacement of components. For example, an entire blade set could be swapped quickly to test new designs. The same philosophy extended to the full Mechanical Marvel sub-assembly, which was connected through a single large electrical interface, ensuring changeovers were efficient and trouble-free.

While these mechanical and electronic components were being manufactured, DCA’s UX team used the digital twin to develop a graphical language with Bentley and experimented with the interplay between 2D on-screen graphics and the 3D movement of the blades and lighting. This approach saved valuable time and enabled graphical content to be developed before the physical demonstrator was completed.

Simultaneously, DCA’s software team transformed the digital twin from a visual representation of the final mechanism into a system that could drive the demonstrator: seamlessly synchronising on-screen content with the control of multiple motors and hundreds of LEDs. The software tools were developed with the aim that, once DCA’s involvement had finished, the Bentley team would be able to continue programming, testing, and refining the program as the project moved forward internally.

DCA’s software team seamlessly synchronised on-screen content with the control of multiple motors and hundreds of LEDs.

When the physical demonstrator was constructed and connected to its virtual counterpart, the movement, lighting, and display outputs developed by the UX team could be assessed in detail and refined in real time. This seamless integration between virtual and physical systems allowed rapid iteration and precise design development.

Throughout the project, DCA worked closely with the team at Bentley and a range of external partners to establish a potential route to production for the Mechanical Marvel.