Software upgradable dashboard

Abstract

A dashboard for a vehicle, comprising a monitor which displays graphical images depicting dashboard instruments. In one embodiment, the monitor is a general purpose LCD graphics display coupled to a graphics generator. The graphics generator is a processor which executes a virtual dashboard software application. The processor receives vehicle information such as speed, fuel level, mileage and battery charge, and processes this information using the virtual dashboard software application to generate graphics signals which are transmitted to the monitor for display to the driver. The images displayed to the driver are determined by the virtual dashboard application, and not by the monitor itself. The displayed images are user-selectable so that they can be varied to suit the preferences of different drivers. The driver may alternately select different groups of images to view on the monitor using touch screens or speech commands.

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.