Jaguar Land Rover is working on ways of turning your windscreen into an augmented reality learning tool.
JLR is fed up with bog standard windscreens. The Tata-owned car maker is developing a raft of new technologies, including Virtual Windscreen – a technology that projects augmented reality graphics onto the entire windscreen to guide the driver in various ways.
The Virtual Windscreen includes a track day assistant function that projects images of ghost cars, which can either represent the driver’s previous lap, previous race or a friend’s information. Essentially, the driver can race against a virtual version of themselves or a rival to see how their performance compares. It can also place the racing line in front of the driver – Gran Turismo-style.
The technology is currently very limited as the materials used aren’t easily scaleable to the size and curvature of a full windscreen.
Transparent Bonnet, presented back in April, is another example of how the windscreen could project images, in this case via cameras placed under the bonnet, to give the driver better visibility when negotiating unfamiliar terrain.
Jaguar Land Rover has estimated that the technology is around ten years away from production cars. Dr. Wolfgang Epple, Director of Research and Technology for JLR, said: “We will give the driver exactly the information he needs at the right time, at the right location in the car. The Jaguar Virtual Windscreen takes the load away from the driver so he can stay all the time with his eyes on the road.”
We can’t help but love the concept of this real-life meet simulation technology. What do you think of Jag’s plans? Leave your comments below.