Jaguar Land Rover is developing a 3D head-up display that looks to serve as both a safety feature and point of passenger entertainment.
Developed in a joint venture with the Centre for Advanced Photonics and Electronics (CAPE) at the University of Cambridge, the technology primarily looks to improve driver reaction times by projecting augmented reality alerts into the drivers’ line of sight.
JLR engineers claim that the use of a 3D display serves to improve reaction times by allowing the driver to react more “naturally” to hazards and prompts. The tech can be used to warn drivers of lane departure and upcoming hazards as well as give sat-nav directions and improve visibility in challenging conditions.
Head and eye tracking technology would ensure users can view the 3D effects without the use of cinema-style glasses; however, it’s currently unclear whether drivers and passengers that are unable to view 3D effects in films due to eye-related issues will be able to use the technology.
Aside from safety, JLR also claims the displays could offer entirely unique and personal entertainment for passengers in a “fully autonomous future”. Movies, journey details and local landmarks are all potential points of 3D development.
Valerian Meijering, Human Machine Interface & Head-Up Display Researcher for JLR says that the technology “not only provides a much richer experience for customers, but also forms part of our Destination Zero roadmap; helping us to towards a safer, more intuitive and smarter future”.
Destination Zero, a concept championed by JLR, is the utopian vision of a safer, healthier and environmentally friendly automotive future – a concept in which this 3D technology holds a reserved place.
Another concept in which it holds a place is that of the company’s ‘Smart Cabin’ venture, the hope of creating a “personalised space inside the vehicle for driver and passengers with enhanced safety, entertainment and convenience features”. There is currently no indication of when this technology might appear as a working concept.
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Dear Autocar
But will it be mainstream?
I like the idea but not as a £1000 extra like most cars ,so most people avoid it and save the loss on selling on.It should bemade as standard and add £100 or so to the price idf all cars are fitted with it,economies of scale.
Lanehogger is correct
It will be another irritation, that won't work properly. Why can't they just concentrate on the fundamentals, as Lanehogger suggests. Maybe they could look at my list of irritations!
Why does the circular gearlever sometimes jam and not let you rotate it to select a gear. Sometimes you can move from D to N to R so easily, sometimes it won't let you.
Sometimes you park the car for 2 days and the sat-nav instantly knows where it is. Sometimes, you park it for 10 minutes and it totally lost! (Mercedes can be just as bad)
Sometimes the keyless entry works with the lightest finger touch to lock it. Sometimes you have to press and press and press firmly. (Maybe copy the Toyota system, or put the buttons back on, like the XJ, which always worked)
Sometimes the powered boot will open at the 1st press of the button. Sometimes you have to press and press and press. I have never had to press the button more than once on my toaster to stop it toasting, and that is just a toaster!
And who thought that cutting all the power when you have parked and the front seat passenger opens the door was a good idea? You are halfway through trying to close the roof blind, to keep the sun out, the passenger opens the door, and the blind stops, so you have to start the car again, just to close the blind!
And JLR - don't mention driverless technology! I drove a Toyota last week, in the rain, and after 65 miles, a message appeared - clean radar sensor, and it disabled the cruise control as a result. There was so little dirt on the sensor, that cleaning it hardly marked a clean white cloth, and the car was still so clean, even someone with OCD wouldn't have thought about washing the car.
JLR and many other manufacturers should sit down with their component suppliers and make sure that the existing technology works 1st time, every time, before fitting yet more complicated equipment!
@LucyP
If you can see it, I can see it and everyone else can see it, what are they playing at?
Getting the Nav to work would be a start
Tough to type but I agree. Why on earth the things that JLR get wrong frequently aren’t the priority I will never know.
JLR make great looking cars that’s for sure but when do you ever see one with high mileage ! That’s because they spend their life at dealerships being fixed. Their managers and execs get given new ones so frequently they have no idea how bad they really are. Shameful really. Spend the money on the things people expect - reliability.