The display and operating concept of MAN’s new Truck range has been awarded Gold in the German Design Award 2021 in the Excellent Product Design category. The international jury of 38 design experts rewarded the truck range’s consistent, practice-oriented work place for truck drivers. This is now the second major award for the driver’s workplace in the new MAN Truck Generation after winning the Red Dot in the Red Dot Design Award.
What is the Gold Award?
“The Gold Award of the German Design Award is the highest distinction awarded for excellent, comprehensive and innovative design work. As leading trailblazers, ‘Gold’ title holders provide crucial stimulation for entire industries,” according to Lutz Dietzold, Managing Director of the German Design Council. The German Design Award is the international premium prize of the German Design Council and is one of the most recognized design competitions worldwide.
Why did MAN Win?
Dr Andreas Tostmann, Chairman of the executive board of MAN Truck & Bus, underlines the special significance of the new award for the truck series launched at the beginning of 2020:
“The new MAN Truck generation provides our customers with maximum support in their daily work. Our drivers know best what the perfect workplace must look like. That’s why we listened carefully and designed it according to their ideas. We are all the more pleased that numerous design experts are now honouring the new driver’s workplace. This shows us that we are on the right track!”
The Design Process
In the course of developing the new Truck Generation, MAN involved more than 700 truck drivers in various types of model, driving simulator and test track studies and integrated their experience into designing the new work place.
This is determined by three independently operable systems: firstly, the instrumentation; secondly, the media and navigation system with a display of up to 12.3 inches in size and the innovative MAN SmartSelect control element; and thirdly, the internal remote control for controlling comfort and entertainment functions from the bunk area. Each system has its own truck-specific control logic, which, at the same time, is integrated into the holistic interaction concept.
This enables the driver to intuitively operate the numerous assistance and comfort functions of the new MAN Truck Generation and thus to drive the vehicle safely and efficiently. All the operating elements have been designed so as not to distract the driver’s attention from what is happening on the road. The display and operating levels are separated from each other so that the visual information is as close as possible to the line of sight to the road, whereas the control elements are within reach from a comfortable seated position.
The MAN SmartSelect, for example, with its turn and press function, minimises the need to look away from the road when operating the infotainment and navigation menus. Another major benefit of the new driver’s workplace is that every driver is offered the same high level of operating comfort quickly and in a self-explanatory manner, regardless of age, professional experience or technical affinity. With these features, the new MAN Truck Generation makes a lasting contribution to simplifying the increasingly demanding everyday working life of truck drivers.
