In the transportation industry, every vehicle has thousands of electrical components that work in tandem to provide not only safety and reliability, but also progressive advancements for users’ comfort. Over the past decade, the number of cars with interactive touchscreen consoles has risen considerably, and while this feature is more commonplace than ever, it also provides unique challenges when it comes to electrical testing.

The main benefit of interactive touchscreen consoles in vehicles is their usability and sheer number of features. From playing music, to accessing GPS services, to adjusting climate controls, each console comes with a vast array of attributes that must all be tested to ensure they function individually and simultaneously. This means utilizing rigorous electrical testing protocols to not only make sure buttons and switches work, but that the hardware and software integrate effectively to provide all the desired features of the console.

Touch Precision

Touchscreen consoles must withstand a high number of touches and swipes throughout their lifetime, and as a result electrical testing must ensure the screen can sustain years of use. This involves not only durability testing, but also accuracy and precision testing to verify that each touchpoint corresponds with the desired task. For example, testing to ensure that when a physical touch is registered on the ‘accept call button’ on the console, the electrical components of the console are programmed to perform the correct function.

Voice Activation

Furthermore, touchscreen consoles often incorporate voice-activated features which must be able to distinguish user commands from general external noise. Testing these features involves exposing the electrical components to numerous forms of input in order to properly program the console to reject interference.

Environmental Variability

Many external factors also play a role in how vehicles’ electrical components must be tested. The temperature within a vehicle can change significantly, especially with advanced climate control attributes that can be utilized through a touchscreen console. The challenge here is that all electrical components must be temperature tested to ensure they function properly in all possible conditions, including both high and low temperatures.

Touchscreen consoles are now a staple within the transportation industry, and as a result electrical testing solutions must be meticulous and thorough to ensure that vehicles remain safe, reliable, and comfortable for users. Choosing a custom electrical testing solution ensures that your touchscreen console is rigorously analyzed and tested to ensure each feature and component work synchronously to provide a seamless driving experience.

Test Products, Inc. (TPI) has provided custom and patented solutions for the electrical testing industry for decades due to its ability to customize testing systems to fit each client’s unique needs. TPI focuses on creating a testing plan as a final step to validate and verify the smallest sub-system to the entire final assembled product to assure it arrives as promised to the customer and that you are producing it with the highest throughput and profitability.