Methods and systems are provided. One method includes receiving, at a server, a geo-location of a vehicle. The method further includes receiving from time to time, at the server, vehicle condition. The method includes identifying a user account for the vehicle. The user account includes preferences associated with a profile of a user. The method also includes sending data to the vehicle. The data is for presentation on a display screen or output via an audio system of the vehicle. The data is selected based on a context of the geo-location and the vehicle condition or the preferences associated with the profile of the user. Interaction modes can be used to define what information is displayed and when information is provided to the display screen.

Systems, methods and computer readable storage media provide a flexible and variability-accommodating instrument cluster for display on an in-vehicle screen and a user experience interaction model for providing dynamic driving-context-relevant information via the instrument cluster. The instrument cluster may be shown in a contextual content view, wherein the contextual content view may include a one or more gauges and/or messaging that are determined to be relevant to a determined contextual state of the vehicle. The contextual state of the vehicle may be determined based on signaling data provided by a plurality of data sources, wherein the signaling data may indicate one or a combination of conditions associated with the contextual state. The instrument cluster may be dynamically updated to display the driving-context-relevant information when the contextual state is detected.

Systems, methods and computer readable storage media provide a flexible and variability-accommodating instrument cluster for display on an in-vehicle screen and a user experience interaction model for providing vehicle status-related information via the instrument cluster. The instrument cluster may be shown in a minimized content view, basic content view, or enhanced content view, wherein each content view may include a varying range of displayed information based on a layout template. The driver can easily scroll between the various content views while driving. The instrument cluster may alternatively be shown in a favorites view, amongst a plurality of preconfigured favorites views associated with different drivers, the favorites view including a user-selected set of gauges in a user-selected layout. A steering wheel-based shortcut control is provided that can be assigned to a changeable parameter and used to toggle the parameter in association with an instrument cluster display element while driving.

An air conditioning control ECU functions as a display control section and a prohibiting section. The display control section is configured to display an icon on a touch screen in cases in which an input operation has been performed using a virtual key displayed on the touch screen or a rotary switch provided to the touch screen, the icon corresponding to an instruction arising from the input operation using the switchover key or the rotary switch. The prohibiting section is configured to prohibit display of the icon by the display control section in cases in which a specific condition has been satisfied, for example when an image captured by a camera is being displayed on the touch screen.

Systems and methods for outputting to a vehicle dashboard screen from multiple operating systems are described in this disclosure. The systems and methods use a computing device to host different types of applications in the operating systems. A first of the operating systems runs driving-critical applications, and a second of the operating systems can run non-driving-critical applications. The first operating system has direct access to display hardware on the computing device, and can include security features to prevent it from being compromised. Outputs generated by the non-driving-critical applications in the second operating system are sent to the first operating system, where the outputs are combined with outputs from the driving-critical applications, to create a series of composite images for display on the dashboard screen. Either the first operating system or the second operating system can control the whole dashboard screen based on predetermined configurations.