BMW’s full-color HUD: distraction, minimizer of distractions, or costly gadget?
extremetech.com
extremetech.com
The adaptive cruise control, speedometer, and navigation is all available on the HUD -- it displays at appropriate times -- and is gone when I don't need it. When I'm about to hit a car in front of me, it gives a red warning that gets my attention.
It's really quite functional, and not distracting. You can dial-up and dial-down the contrast, which is worth doing. For me, it's easy to ignore if I don't want to see it.
But maybe, just maybe, it doesn't bother me because I grew up playing video games with health, points, and other metadata in the corner of my eyes growing up. :-)
Once you've driven with it for a bit, it really does increase the attention paid to the road. Your quick checks for speed, gas, tach are instead diverted to mirror checks or just keeping your eyes on what's happening ahead.
That said, the Corvette's was a monochromatic subtle display. I'm not sure what the impact of full-color high-resolution information would be. One always has to be wary of the "ooo... let's watch the odometer rollover to the next 10,000" kind of distraction.
I do understand BMW's hesitation to load too much information into this display. Most car companies are notably horrible at user interface for the new technology they integrate into the car (BMW has a spotty track record here too with its early iDrive iterations). For example the new Lexus GS appears to persistently show radio station information in the HUD. This is not something that I need to see full time, only when I'm channel surfing. Jaguar does a nice job of showing relevant info at the right time in its non-HUD LCD instrument cluster, replacing the tach with other info at relevant moments.
One thing I've really wanted is for a car's display stack to be built on a customizable platform, like Android or iOS, where third parties can integrate data. This way you can change the UI to suit your need, or integrate third party modules (like a radar detector). Definitely some care needs to be exercised here so as not to produce too much distraction, but I do think some of the features in new cars may have jumped this shark already (my 550 lets me do simple posts to Facebook from the dashboard screen - while driving!).
From my experience BMW's HUD is the greatest feature of all. Very useful. The speedometer helps drastically, you don't need to shift eyes from the road. Much safer driving.
"They can project the temporary speed limit or other hazard information onto the HUD, as shown here."
It's not about 3D, it's about never having to look down at a dashboard instead of the real world.
2. Mounting is rather complicated as the whole thing is sunk into the dash behind the instrument cluster. Not many cars (if any at all) have enough empty space there to accommodate the hardware.
I wouldn't be surprised if many decades ago having a speedometer in a car was an expensive option. If HUDs catch on (and I hope they do), they'll become cheaper and who knows, maybe even standard equipment one day.
There has been at least one add-on HUD-type display for motorcycle helmets for a few years (http://www.gizmag.com/go/2430/). Last I read they weren't technically legal for road use in the US, not that I think anyone would be ticketing you for it.
Has this ever ship? I know there were a few companies looking to do this for motorcycles where there is a huge benefit to not having to look down to check your speed.
There is another company that does similar things for skiing goggles that looks really interesting. http://www.reconinstruments.com/shop
On that note, it's technologically possible these days to mount a tiny camera that would keep track of your eye movements and orientation, and would activate a danger signal -- or something to that effect -- when your eyes have been taken off the road for more than X consecutive seconds (i.e., if they're staring at a cell phone screen while you're texting).
So as not to be super-annoying, the X second interval would be ratcheted high enough not to freak out everytime you checked a side mirror or looked out the window, or at the radio dial, etc.
Seems to me that this sort of thing would save at least as many lives as the incessant beeping that new cars activate when you turn on the ignition without fastening your seatbelt.
Then again, maybe this is a terrible idea, bound to plague millions of drivers the way the seatbelt beeping does. I dunno. I'm just really sick of near-misses with idiots who are texting while driving.
I wonder what the net effect would be, considering the potential of drivers to be distracted by annoying beeping noises, or to condition themselves not to look out windows or in mirrors when doing so is more important than looking out the windshield.
> Then again, maybe this is a terrible idea, bound to plague millions of drivers the way the seatbelt beeping does. I dunno. I'm just really sick of near-misses with idiots who are texting while driving.
I'm not convinced that it's generally a good idea to outsource responsibility for safety to external devices, but if you're going to do it, in this case, it may be more reasonable to put the constraint in the phone rather than the car. It should be relatively trivial to restrict text entry when moving at high speeds on a phone with embedded GPS, and doing so would alter the behavior of the thing causing the distraction rather than the thing you want drivers to pay attention to.
True, but that solution would have the unintended consequence of screwing over passengers who may want to text.
I remember a few years ago when the technology was ready but it was held back because they thought people would feel insulted by the car but apparently it got through to market now.