The New Horsepower Race: Bigger, HD Dashboard Screens

Washington DC April 30, 2012; The AIADA newsletter reported that automakers have discovered the big screens as a way of exciting tech-crazed customers. They're installing increasingly larger displays in new models as they roll out increasingly sophisticated infotainment and navigation systems, reports USA Today.

Screens are growing as customers opt for ever-larger flat-panel TV screens in their living rooms. Showing how priorities are changing, few automakers are jockeying to make new models longer or wider on the outside. They are, rather, competing with bigger high-definition dashboard displays.

The most vivid example is the screen in the new Lexus GS, one of the largest among luxury cars at 12.3 inches measured diagonally, up from 8 inches in the previous generation. One reason to go bigger was to create a display with a split screen, Lexus spokesman Bill Kwong says.

One side shows maps and other navigation information, while the other shows climate control or audio settings. "Why go to play the radio if it kicks you out of the map?" he asks in explaining the split screen. Likewise, the screen in the 2013 Santa Fe crossover was boosted to 8 inches from 6.5.