One of the accessories that appeared to belong to the realm of science fiction until about a decade ago, and which today has become accessible not just on flagship and premium cars - is called the Head-up Display or HUD, although some car manufacturers have renamed it with their own acronym.
This is a device that projects the salient data before the driver's eyes to avoid them having to take their eyes off the road to read the instruments. This brilliant solution was not conceived for cars.
The term Head-up display (literally encouraging you to lift your head up) was first coined in 1958 when Rank Cintel and the Royal Aircraft Establishment, a research institute based on the initiative of the British Ministry of Defence, decided to develop a device that had actually been used in its rudimentary form since the early 1950s on fighter jets.
It was used to view altitude, speed and weapon tracking systems while keeping your gaze fixed in front of you, with indicators on the front of the cab roof.
THE DÉBUT IN FORMULA INDY
After further developments in both military and civil aeronautics, the HUD was tested in the automotive sector in 1988 by GM on an Indy championship safety car, the Oldsmobile Cutlass Supreme. Later, other makes such as Nissan, Toyota and Chevrolet began working on this system and today, more and more models offer it as a contribution to active safety.
The Head-up display is basically a system capable of projecting plenty of driving information onto a screen or onto the windscreen, within the driver's field of view: speed, navigation guidance, signals from the assistance systems, limits and in some cases incoming calls and even the music you are listening to. Although this technology may seem distracting, the HUD is carefully designed to be almost invisible when not being viewed directly.
THE TWO SOLUTIONS
All the systems on the market lead to two technical solutions: the first, which is cheaper and perhaps less stylish in appearance, uses a small transparent screen that rises up from the dashboard in front of the driver and on which the information is reflected. Its début among non-premium cars took place around a decade ago with the first generation of the Peugeot 3008, whereas these days you are quite likely to find it lower segment cars too, together with other active safety equipment.
The second, which is more sophisticated,projects the graphics directly onto the windscreen with a small holographic module located on the top of the dashboard. In this case, the effect created makes data and indications appear suspended a few metres further ahead of the vehicle, allowing the driver to reposition their eyes as quickly as possible.This solution was coined before the other one, towards the end of the last decade, and its use was widespread on the BMW models from the 7 Series and upwards, and shortly after also on Mercedes and Audi.
AUGMENTED REALITY
Since its début, the potential of the Head-up Display has been expanded by integrating other technologies such as augmented reality, which works through interaction with cameras and safety sensors. Thanks to the latter, it is possible to project indications that look like they have been drawn onto the road surface, transforming the HUD into a sort of three-dimensional navigator, integrating danger signals and highlighting obstacles.
The developments also include an extension of the field of vision, which is no longer limited to the portion of space in front of the driver but can widen to the entire windscreen, overlapping artificially created images with what is actually seen. So, for example, advanced HUD can show the driver what is hidden to their eyes, such as obstacles or small animals, by virtually “disappearing” the hood by projecting images captured by the external cameras.And this is just the beginning. Just think that the technical solution for the car is less than fifteen years old.
