
New Augmented Reality HUD Is a Fighter Jet Display for Your Car - Libertatea
http://www.wired.com/autopia/2013/09/pioneer-navgate/
======
Silhouette
I think there's huge potential in this kind of technology as an extension of
normal driver vision, particularly combined with the kinds of specialised
cameras we're starting to see fitted to premium vehicles now (night vision,
radar) and the image recognition tech to go with them (lane discipline
warnings, parking assistance, hazards approaching the driving line ahead).

Just yesterday, there was a 130 vehicle crash here in the UK (sadly, that
number was not a typo) after thick, low fog moved in over a bridge that is
normally a major high-speed route. If everyone's vehicle had been fitted with
technology that detected reduced traction due to the greasy road surface, how
close vehicles in front really were and how abruptly they were slowing down
even if fog was obscuring them, and how fast each driver's own vehicle was
really going, and if a HUD had then flashed up the essential information and
highlighted the insufficient stopping distances drivers were leaving, there
might have been many fewer injuries, much less damage, and much less
disruption treating the injured and recovering disabled vehicles. While
yesterday's weather conditions were unusually severe for the UK, similar
arguments would apply all the time at night for anyone driving on high speed
or bendy out-of-town roads.

On the other hand, was I the only person who watched that video and got
completely distracted by the zooming route map towards the end? If I were
driving for real, I think it would be very difficult to concentrate properly
on the road ahead with all of that activity going on. Avoiding information
overload and maintaining driver concentration seem like serious concerns for
this kind of system, but as a UI guy it looks like an awesome project to work
on.

~~~
jrabone
I think there's too much going on in that HUD for the average driver to parse.
I'm also unconvinced by the choice of elevation perspective for the route
guidance - even though the display is above the road, it feels less confusing
to have a "birds-eye" perspective on the route guidance.

As the Sheppey pile-up demonstrates, there's a lot of people who simply suck
at driving - specifically maintaining sufficient braking distance and NOT
cutting into someone else's braking distance when changing lanes (in poor
conditions that space is for ME to stop in, not for YOU to slide into). As it
is, I'm conscious that I need to be aware of the car behind as well as the car
in front. The only way it'll work is if the car brakes for you, and then
everyone has to have that technology.

------
jgrahamc
I think that HUDs in cars are a step backwards.

For my driving I like to be able to see clearly through the windscreen at all
the things that are going on around me. For that reason I keep the windscreen
clean and I don't like having any windscreen mounted things (like a cellphone
or GPS).

I'm much happier in one of two modes: looking through the glass at things
around me (road, cars, people, bikes, etc.) and looking at an instrument for
data (speedometer, GPS, fuel, etc.)

I can glance at my GPS and know what's going on when I need to. Similarly, if
I need a quick speed check. I really don't want these things in my field of
vision when looking through the window. I think a HUD with any sort of motion
of changing data would be incredibly distracting.

~~~
Silhouette
I expressed similar concerns, but I think if some clever optics could overlay
data "in place" onto the normal windscreen image there could be many practical
applications. You could replace intrusive SatNav arrows with highlighting the
actual driving line required as you look out at the road ahead. You could scan
with a night vision camera and outline animals or other hazards in the road
ahead that aren't yet within range of headlights. Maybe the vehicle ahead
could be outlined in red and the distance to it displayed, if your car
detected that under current driving conditions you were in danger of not being
able to stop quickly enough should anything happen; as I mentioned in my other
post, a similar technique would be very relevant if you couldn't actually see
the next vehicle in front due to adverse weather but your on-board radar could
pick it up.

~~~
joezydeco
_" You could replace intrusive SatNav arrows with highlighting the actual
driving line required as you look out at the road ahead"_

There's a company already doing this, the Pioneer HUD is kind of a rip of
their concept:

[http://mvs.net/index.html](http://mvs.net/index.html)

------
jacquesm
High end BMW's have had something like this as an option (very expensive) for
a while now. It's done in a much more elegant way than here in the article
posted, the virtual distance the display is at is at roughly the same distance
as the stuff in front of your car where your eyes are focused so there is no
need to re-focus all the time.

There are some pretty tricky optics involved in getting a light path of the
right focal length in the room just under the windshield and the first part of
the bonnet so the image appears at the right distance.

~~~
jrabone
£800 option on the F30 in the UK - doesn't seem that much on a £43K 330d...

------
lifeformed
I feel like this would introduce the same problems as captions do in movies:
you spend the whole time staring at the captions/hud instead of the
movie/outside. Except with movies, you just miss out on the cinematography,
whereas with this, you get in an accident.

------
ilaksh
I have found myself holding my cell phone up in front of me while driving in
order to read text messages. I had someone honk at me in that case, but I am
sure that was safer than looking down and hiding the phone in my lap or
something, because I was able to see the road behind the phone at the same
time (not very well though and of course it was dangerous anyway).

I think a HUD may become standard in most cars within a few years because its
just much safer to have information or controls projected in your field of
view than to have to look down or away from the road. And so many people have
long commutes with emails or instant messages coming in that they would like
to be able to monitor without taking their eyes off of the road. Even if you
are changing your focus or attention slightly, the time to refocus on objects
that are still in your field of vision or only a few degrees away is much less
than what might be required to switch away from viewing a phone in your hand.

~~~
Silhouette
_And so many people have long commutes with emails or instant messages coming
in that they would like to be able to monitor without taking their eyes off of
the road._

Then perhaps they should consider taking public transportation? These kinds of
HUD technologies could do a lot to make important driving information more
easily accessible, but given the overwhelming evidence that trying to
concentrate on remote communication while driving dramatically increases the
risk of and damage caused by having an accident, it's hard to believe that
shoving all that information between the driver's eyes and the road could ever
make that kind of activity acceptably safe.

------
roc
> _" Most HUDs fail for one reason"_

And that reason is: most people, for most trips, just don't need it. [1]

Driving a passenger car is simple and boring. That's why people distract
themselves. That's why they go on mental auto-pilot and will readily admit
they weren't consciously aware of how they got from one place to another.

Even if and when that data is front and center, it gets tuned out with
everything else.

[1] Turn by turn is great, but it's explicitly for the minority of cases.
(business travelers, outliers, notwithstanding)

------
wavesounds
I've had this idea for a while. But why stop at turn by turn stuff? Why not
put upcoming traffic there, your text messages, the controls for the radio and
air-conditioning. Heck get rid of the dashboard all together. Just put some
buttons on the steering wheel and display everything on the HUD. I've been in
a car that drove up on the sidewalk because the driver was fiddling with the
radio. This seems much safer to me.

------
Groxx
> _Pioneer doesn’t identify the phones supported by NavGate, but it’s
> connected via USB so order an extra long cable now. ... sales have only been
> announced for Europe for £599_

 _What_? That's _crazy_. Mini projectors can be bought for about $200, and
this could easily run a slow display over bluetooth or literally anything over
wifi (then it's just a video stream to a mini projector with a special lens
and a piece of glass).

Good idea, bad idea, I wouldn't even consider this with that kind of price
tag.

~~~
sp332
If you want a projector, just buy a projector. This is a completely different
product. Also, wifi is very noisy and crowded. I wouldn't depend on it.

------
touristtam
turn by turn navigation works ok-ish in cities, but is quite rubbish in the
country side, specially in region where the company owning the map data
doesn't care much about streamed update. I have had CS experience for one of
the two mentioned by pioneer as supported, and although they had recent
changes, I seriously doubt the end user experience will be any nicer in the
near future. I trust Google more than the product I provided support for not
so long ago. Still nice to see someone trying to tackle the HUD in cars.

