Yanfeng unites technologies to develop new auto interior products

Leading interiors supplier Yanfeng Automotive Trim Systems has repeatedly gotten the same question from automakers since debuting its futuristic Experience in Motion 2020 (XiM20) concept last year: "What does this have that we can put into our next-generation models?"

The answer is inside the recently launched version, XiM21, which has production-ready features such as zero-gravity seats and its proprietary Smart Cabin Controller that acts as the brain of the interior.

Last year, the Shanghai-based Yanfeng, No. 19 on Automotive News' ranking of global suppliers, decided to combine the R&D activities of its interiors, seating, electronics, safety and exteriors divisions into a new unit called Yanfeng Technology. The idea is both integration — getting a single brain to control multiple functions — and development speed, allowing new products to get to market faster.

Han Hendriks, 55, leads that combined business. He spoke with Automotive News Europe Managing Editor Douglas A. Bolduc about Yanfeng's expectations for next-generation interiors. Here are edited excerpts.

Q: There are so many different functions working in the interior at the same time. How do you get all these pieces to move in the right direction?

Hendriks: If you have seen the increase in both digital and automated functions in the interior, you know that to create a meaningful, intuitive in-car experience, it's not just a matter of turning lights or music on and off or increasing the temperature. What is crucial is how these features and functions work together as a whole. The choreography of what happens and when it happens is crucial.

Q: How do you do that?
Hendriks: Some functions you want to happen in parallel, some you want to happen sequentially. With that vision in mind, we started developing our own domain control unit. We call it our Smart Cabin Controller. It's a central brain of the interior. Based on 70-plus use cases, we have been able to have [it] choreograph these functions. That means if you want to create a certain mood, or if you want to personalize the interior, you don't have to do everything individually. You have settings or modes you can go to.

Q: How has the controller evolved?
Hendriks: In the XiM20 concept from last year, we also created the impression of a central brain where a lot of these functions happen. It was very well choreographed. But to create that effect in the previous vehicle, we had 19 laptops hidden in the trunk running these simulations. As you can imagine, it was quite an effort to keep everything working for demonstration purposes. It was just very complicated.

To our great happiness, we now have a production-ready chip that is doing all the work. It's incredibly robust.

Q: Did you create that chip in-house?
Hendriks: Yes. We did it 100 percent ourselves.

Q: Many automakers and suppliers have established their own software divisions. Does Yanfeng need to do this?
Hendriks: We need to have strong in-house software capability, which is why we are recruiting software engineers in every region of the world to support our efforts. But we do not need 20,000 software engineers.

Q: So you're comfortable with your current level of software expertise?
Hendriks: I wouldn't say that. The software capability we have at the moment needs to grow because the importance of software continues to increase. But I don't think we need to do 100 percent of our software development in-house.

Q: Why does Yanfeng favor small screens in different parts of the interior over having one big screen like Tesla?
Hendriks: If we do the cockpit for a large premium car and the customer wants a big screen, we can do that. We have a strategic partnership with Chinese display manufacturer BOE, which is world market leader. We are very close to their R&D. We are very close to their OLED [organic light emitting diodes] development for automotive, including large screens.

For the XiM21, however, we decided not to show off the high end of what is technically possible. We decided to create something that is a production reality for larger-volume segments. Why not beautifully integrate two smaller screens into a larger black panel? This creates the same effect for significantly less cost.

Q: Besides cost, what drove your decision?
Hendriks: In the XiM21, we have five screens. We have two curved TFT [thin-film-transistor] screens in front of the driver. We have a flat TFT screen as a central information display between the driver and passenger. This is the screen that can move toward the passenger. The use cases for sharing a screen are very rewarding.

For example, the passenger can enter the navigation for the driver and then swipe the content to the driver's screen. In addition, the passenger can read the newspaper or watch a movie. Then we have two curved OLED screens for the rear-seat passengers that are hidden in the seat backs.

Q: How is the XiM21 an evolution of the XiM20?
Hendriks: For the XiM20, we did a large amount of research — some of it was proprietary research on quality of life, which is obviously essential if you are creating a small space.

When we started work on the XiM20, we engaged with more than 2,000 end consumers in North America, Germany and China to really understand how the perception of quality of life was evolving. We wanted to know how we could translate that back into the interior of a car.

We engaged with customers with our initial ideas for that vision and ultimately started to steer our innovation, investments and projects in that direction, resulting in what we call our "smart cabin."

Q: How do you tap into the different regions of Yanfeng's reach, in Europe, China and North America?
Hendriks: We really build on the strength of each region. I see us leveraging this global reach every day. Our American colleagues are very creative. They have lots of great ideas. Our European teams, especially in Germany, are very robust in their execution, especially when it comes to engineering. And our China colleagues can go very, very fast.

Q: What do you mean when you say the Chinese go fast?
Hendriks: We are not talking about 10 percent faster or even 30 percent faster. It's even faster than that. I'll give you an example.

Ten years ago when I was in China visiting our tech center, we had a design review of a seat for a Korean automaker. The head of the design for the automaker was in our tech center and we had the prototype on the table. He was looking at it and he said, "I find the look of the headrest somewhat heavy." So we started drawing with a marker on the headrest. And then he asked, "When can I see the retrimmed seat [to] evaluate it?"

In my mind, coming from Europe, I was thinking, "We need to create a project brief. We need to get some signatures. We need to get the budget approved. We need to plan the work in our prototype shop." I figured it would take three to four weeks.

To my surprise, our tech leader there said, "We can have the seat ready for you to take a look at by the end of the day. Let's say 5 o'clock." This is just one example.

Q: And what happened?

Hendriks: At 1:30 p.m., I got a call that the review with this customer was scheduled at 2 p.m. because the seat was ready and this guy was available. I could join in the review if I had time.

It's that type of paradigm shift. It is amazing if you can infect your teams around the world with that level of speed.