Comment by KyleBrandt | Hacker News Reader

Comment by KyleBrandt | Hacker News Reader

Safety gear is great and I wear a lot of it when I ride, but on a motorcycle you really depend on avoiding accidents -- The gear only helps so much compared to a car. It is sort of like picking the fast and nimble vehicle in a videogame instead of the tank -- except you actually die or get hurt.

Therefore distractions are perhaps the biggest safety concern (in particular here in south Florida, everyone is out to get me :-) ). I could see the view that maybe not worrying about navigating is actually less of distraction, but for me I don't think that would be the case. Every second I would spend looking at the HUD is a second I'm not:

  * Looking for someone making a left hand turn right in front me
  * Noticing who is texting while driving
  * Noticing stuff on the road that could result in a loss of traction
  * Watching Cars with stuff that might fall off in front of me
  * Observing people that look like they might run a light
  * Focusing on good control of the bike
  * Planning Escape Routes
  * etc....

In short, accident avoidance in the long run takes constant focus (and unfortunately, a bit of luck too).

I recently got back into regularly riding (I now regularly commute to/from work on my motorcycle) and I completely agree. However, I absolutely would love to have a HUD, but not anything people keep thinking you need a HUD for. A decent GPS unit + bluetooth or smartphone + bluetooth is good enough for those "I got lost, now need to get home" rides. I don't want any sort of communication provided on it. I want a real HUD, giving me real time, easily interpreted information about what's going on around me.

I envision something closer to aircraft/fighter aircraft HUDs:

  * Roll indicator
  * "target indicator" (in this case, any non-stationary object).  Can be as simple as a diamond shape near the center of the detected target
  * Visual indicator of direction/speed of the target (something like a line from the diamond as a 3d projection for where the diamond will be in 4 seconds based on current speed/direction)
  * Similar direction/speed indicator for you

If done with thin lines (like all the aircraft huds), all the same color, it presents a substantial amount of useful information in an easy to process/digest way without being overly distracting. But, definitely not an easy problem to solve, it's just what I'd like to see.

All of the HUDs I see coming out (Google glass included) seem geared towards providing you information to distract you from what you're doing, not enhance it, which is the opposite of what I want.

You're absolutely right. I've been riding a motorcycle for something like 30 years now (in Paris!) and I'm still alive. Over the years you develop a sense not unlike The Shining; you know who's driving the car in front of you, where it's going and what its driver is doing, with only a glance.

And yet, is driving assistance that distracting? I think I could get used to it (and in any case would only need it on long trips to a place I don't know already).

The objection that a helmet is completely disposable seems more relevant; maybe they should develop only a shield that you could attach to your helmet when you need it (or a device that would work with any helmet)...?

In your opinion, would a voice-based contextually aware device be a big enough distraction/safety reduction to offset it's value?

Or haptics?

That is an interesting idea. I still wouldn't want the distraction myself (rather just pull over, take out my phone, figure it out, and get back on the road). However, I'm a pretty new rider (about 1500 miles on the bike). More experienced riders very well might feel a lot different.

Nope, with over 200K miles and multiple trips across the continental US (I don't care if I ever cross Nebraska again), I don't feel a whole lot differently. In a car, sure, I'll try to maximize efficiency and minimize stopping. On a bike, it's not going to ruin my day to pull over and take a 5 minute break to look at a map/phone. I'm not on a bike to be in a hurry, or even to hit a particular destination a lot of the time.

I've used a GPS on a bike since the mid-late 90s. To me, the use case is completely different than in a car. I'm not driving a rental from the airport to the hotel, and I'm rarely trying to find something in a major city. On a bike the GPS is a nice-to-have tool. But it is not so essential that I'll spend a lot of money, or require it to be constantly displayed on my visor.

This is also pretty easy to do today with an ear-piece and a Garmin.

Heads up is only really helful for the edge-case that is not apparent. Ie, it helps you pre-visualize something. It might be something that is like a blind-corner + turn. Or it might be a confusing intersection (5-way). Or a left hand exit, et. This would help you set-up the right way ahead of time. Rather than just telling you XYZ at the last minutre.

You need a time/distance dynamic lead-time tho, and it is this that current GPS systems suck at. The hard part is just getting the software right. It's a distraction if its not at the right-place + right time.

For example TomTom Rider does a good job of doing exactly that - it shows you the lines mapping for exits etc. I have it hooked up over bluetooth too. Works most of the time. Worked well for me in US and Europe.

You can do that today with a Bluetooth headset helmet and a smartphone.

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