Remember the Transparent Bonnet that made its debut on the Land Rover Discovery Vision concept in April? Well, it looks like Jaguar will be getting its own version of an augmented reality windscreen, dubbed Jaguar Virtual Windscreen. The system is said to project information such as road hazards, speed and navigation directly onto the entire windscreen, ensuring that the driver’s eyes will never have to leave the road.
“By presenting the highest quality imagery possible, a driver need only look at a display once,” said Jaguar Land Rover director of research and technology Wolfgang Epple. “Showing virtual images that allow the driver to accurately judge speed and distance will enable better decision-making and offer real benefits for everyday driving on the road.”
But there is another side to the windscreen display – it can also be used to enhance the driving experience on track. The system can display a virtual racing line that changes colour to indicate when to brake, virtual cones for driver training and even a “ghost car” virtualisation of your previous lap or an uploaded lap from another driver for you to compete against. This is honestly all starting to sound a bit Gran Turismo.
In addition, JLR is also working on a gesture control system for drivers to manipulate a number of functions including sunblinds, rear wipers and maps, all without having to take their eyes off the road. Through a technology known as E-Field Sensing, the system has a motion sensing area of around 15 cm, enabling it to accurately track that hand and any gestures it makes inside the car.
Another technology the company is working on is a 3D instrument cluster in which a feed from external and internal cameras are displayed, replacing traditional rear view and side mirrors.
Cameras mounted in the instrument binnacle or on the steering column track the position of the driver’s head and eyes, and software then adjusts the image projection to feed each eye with two slightly different angles of a particular image. This creates a perception of depth that allows the driver to more accurately judge the distance and speed of other vehicles compared to two-dimensional imagery.
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Much better with anti-bribe and anti-speed trap sensor for Bolehland version.
Wolfgang Epple is a prominent name in automotive world. He was the head of development for BMW E90 and PROTON P3-21A :)
i think this is going the wrong way, instead of training drivers to be more observant, to use what you have to be a better driver, car makers are making them all lazy and spoon fed with more and more so called ‘aids’
eg. i have never had issue reversing or parking or changing lanes, you just had to use your mirrors, turn your head to check blind spots and you’ll be fine
I wonder how convincing that ghost car looks. Maybe some tech illiterate dude will go “THIS HIGHWAY IS HAUNTED!” when driving along at night and accidentally activate that feature.
Pretty interesting development they have here. We’re moving ever closer towards what gamers are already used to seeing…except this is real life with real applications. Excited. Not at the price tag, though.