This is How Jaguar Wants to Make Blind Spots Disappear
Jaguar's getting into the vaporware game with this augmented reality windshield concept, but the fundamental idea is sound … and really cool. Jaguar imagines that instead of a small area for a HUD, images could be projected on the whole windshield. This is what Jaguar thinks its Virtual Windscreen concept might look like in function, and the video below shows three interesting applications of the technology.
First, there are the racing and braking line overlays—you're familiar with these if you've ever played a console racing game with the assists on. As in the game world, this could be a nice, safe introduction to a new course, and one that wouldn't put an instructor at risk. Next, there are the ghost car overlays, also familiar from racing games. Lastly, the virtual cone function is a neat idea and could be a helpful training tool. Imagine a very fast straight and an unfamiliar car; perhaps a nice virtual cone chicane could help keep things under control without having to physically alter the course.
A few months ago, Jaguar showed off a virtual windscreen concept that brought displayed the sort of information overlays normally seen in racing games on a physical windshield via a head-up display.
Think braking lines, race-competitor names and times, and a lap timer—all projected onto the glass. This is where Jaguar Land Rover's head is at, and so plans to cook up a "virtually transparent" A-pillar shouldn't come as much surprise.
The technology at the core of the "virtual urban windscreen", as JLR calls it, is much the same—projected overlays on the windshield track objects of interest—in this case a pedestrian at risk of getting hit—and highlights them for the driver.
The new bits here are the screens embedded in the A-pillars, which allow the system to track and project a warning halo around the object even as it passes behind the pillar and onto the windshield.
External cameras capture the images displayed on the pillars. Think of it as n evolution of the sort of tech you may have seen already in the form of around-view monitors that stitch multiple camera views together to create a comprehensive overhead POV.
Other neat details in this demonstration are transparent B-pillars for over-the-shoulder lane checks, HUD overlays showing POIs, traffic-light countdown timers, and "follow me" ghost-car navigation guidance that replaces arrow-based navigation cues.
This is a research project, not a demonstration of existing technology, which is why it's rendered in CGI just like the original virtual windscreen concept.
Jaguar is looking into the technology but there's no word as to whether a real-world demonstrator has been constructed yet. Hopefully, Jaguar invests enough to get this off the ground, because anything that helps keep drivers' eyes up and on the road is welcome.
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