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The application of Model-Based Design has been well established, documented, and highly refined practice for the development of embedded control systems like those used for power train or chassis controls. Model-Based Design, when applied to in-vehicle electronic systems with human-machine interface (HMI) elements, presents unique challenges and opportunities. Historically, development of the software to drive audio, climate control, navigation or other driver facing functions in a vehicle have been developed with traditional processes. These could include textural requirements and hand coding or application of structured design and analysis tools followed by hand coding. Production of the first working prototype using these traditional methods is much longer than with Model-Based Design. This is an emerging trend in the automotive body electronics design community.

A new human machine interface (HMI) switch control concept was proposed and evaluated with a driver simulator-based simulation analysis as described in the study of Kiyotaka Sasanouchi [1]. This new concept provides an integrated interface for the vehicle driver to operate on-board devices such as audio, multimedia, HVAC, and navigation systems. To further study and evaluate the benefits of the new concept and more importantly the detailed design factors, a prototype system has been developed and then installed in a production vehicle. The experience learned through this development project is presented in this paper. Some key design issues are addressed, including the multi-functional switch design, menu tree optimization, visual feedback display presentation, and vehicle system interface. Results from an internal customer test ride and survey are also presented to demonstrate the performance and benefits of the new HMI concept design.