Lincoln, Ford’s luxury arm, redesigned its Nautilus luxury midsize SUV for model year 2024. Updates include a distinctive flat-top two-spoke steering wheel and a new hybrid powertrain option, among other niceties. But the biggest news for the Nautilus is its giant, future-forward immersive panoramic infotainment screen.
Paired with a smaller touchscreen in the center stack, the panoramic display is set up to show an array of information the driver can customize. Important information like the speedometer and fuel gauge are in roughly the traditional spot behind the steering wheel. Important, but not critical information like tire pressure, weather, clock, and media are all pushed to the right side of the screen.
When the car is in Park, the driver also has access to gaming, video streaming apps, and soon, Ford says, video conferencing. The brand set out to build a customizable platform that can be inserted into a variety of vehicles, including future EVs. Knowing that EVs take longer to charge up than it takes to fuel a gas-powered car, the video apps seem to be a way to keep EV drivers distracted and productive while sitting at a charger.
The panoramic setup, which sits atop the dashboard, is the highest-resolution display Ford–and by extension, Lincoln–has ever offered. Beyond the sheer size of the 48-inch-wide screen, the company went way beyond its comfort zone to create a digital experience unlike anything it has accomplished in the past. We’ve seen it, and it’s impressive.
Gaming tie-in
The squircle-shaped steering wheel is one way to access the SUV’s digital information, equipped with matching “d-pads” (directional pads) to navigate the controls. A d-pad is typically thumb operated and oriented like a plus sign, like a gaming console.
Upping the cool factor (but serving no readily apparent functional…
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