Qt Group has announced it has officially partnered with Ducati to support its implementation of next-generation digital displays on its luxury motorcycles. The new Scrambler 2023 model is the first one to apply the Qt for MCUs technology - a graphics framework and toolkit that delivers smartphone-like user experiences on resource-constrained devices. The convergence between brand style and graphics is a fundamental element for the success of prestigious motorcycles. Fluidity and elegance define the Ducati customer experience, and their digital displays need to reflect these attributes with reactivity, performance, and style.

Ducati's motorcycles' complex cluster design includes stylish splash screen animations, dynamic multilingual menus that change position and size on the screen for optimal readability, and swift real-time interaction with motorcycle data. The new Ducati Scrambler uses a microcontroller (MCU) to power its digital display as this technology offers robust tools for applications requiring snap boot, accurate timing, thermal efficiency, and real-time control. However, without the right software development framework, running graphical interfaces on MCU-based embedded systems may suffer from resource limitations.

The Qt for MCUs graphics frameworks allows the Ducati Scrambler to achieve high-performance 'quasi-3D graphics' using only 1.5MB of RAM. Qt for MCUs runs on either bare metal or real-time operating systems with highly optimized libraries tailored to the MCU and low-end MPU footprint. Ducati adopted Qt for MCUs on bare metal to create a nimble system stripped out of all unnecessary elements, and at the same time to develop the UI on PC before the actual hardware was ready.

The news follows on from Qt's research this year showing that vehicle manufacturers are directing development budgets toward improving user interfaces and the user experience (UI/UX) to enhance their competitiveness. Findings showed that more than half (52%) of respondents plan to spend at least 30% of their product development budget on improving UI/UX in vehicles over the next 12 months, with 23% planning to invest between 40-49% of that budget in UI/UX. In contrast, only 25% of respondents allocated above 30% of their budget towards UI/UX in the previous year, indicating growing recognition of the link between UI/UX and business success.