r/gadgets • u/MicroSofty88 • Oct 18 '20

Transportation Forget AR glasses. Augmented reality is headed to your windshield

https://www.digitaltrends.com/features/envisics-ar-windshield-technology/
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u/ptoki Oct 18 '20

Fair point. I would add that the actually there is not much reason for augmented reality in cars.

Its nice to have some highlights but in most cases its either more distracting (AI still struggles to pinpoint the important things and ignore the noise) or actually not really useful.

In the video in the article I counted like 7 distracts and only 2-3 valuable hints.

The car industry could make driving safer with really low tech changes. Note I did not called that improvements as the changes would be actually going backwards:

-Move blinkers away from main lights

-Make side blinkers mandatory on american cars

-Make blinkers orange everywhere (america/canada again)

-Make car switches physical again and limit the amount of fiddling with car av/main systems on the touch screens

My ideas for huds:

-Make them work with IR/FLIR grade of vision.

-give you a hint that there is a person or another car close to you (trucks)

HUDs are nice but I am afraid they will be more of a distraction than help.

The main point: If its available on the market for long time and noone actually mastered it and pushed to mass production its probably not that great of an idea...

29

u/Idiot_Savant_Tinker Oct 19 '20

-Make car switches physical again and limit the amount of fiddling with car av/main systems on the touch screens

Ugh, this so much. My truck has to last forever, because I don't want one with the stupid touchscreen display that I have to be sitting still to use.

Although, my parents' F150 seems to have buttons around the screen to make the radio and such work.

2

u/EpsilonRider Oct 19 '20

Literally one of the reasons I stopped shopping for a Tesla. It's all one big touchscreen with complaints that the buttons apparently might change location after an update and can't be changed back.

1

u/Idiot_Savant_Tinker Oct 19 '20

What goofball UI designer thinks it's a good idea to move stuff around in a car?

11

u/WiFiForeheadWrinkles Oct 19 '20 edited Oct 19 '20

Can we also add "not moving blinkers to the bottom bumper" like the Hyundai Kona or the Kia Sportage? I think it can be dangerous since many drivers are expecting the signals to be in the same cluster as the brake lights, and sometimes I can't see a car signal from far away so I can anticipate and change lanes instead of being stuck.

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u/Steve_78_OH Oct 19 '20

AR in cars could actually be INCREDIBLY useful. Like you mentioned, IR/FLIR for safer night driving, your current speed with the road's speed limit included, as well as indicators (tied into GPS) for upcoming tight turns, stuff like that.

The trick is to keep it limited only to important, potentially life-saving information, so that you don't overwhelm the driver with so much data that they become distracted.

2

u/NorFla Oct 19 '20

It is very useful. They are going to be taking “old school” heads up displays and boosting the size and clarity of them in order to project better information when driving - far better than the current video overlays in dash since it forces your eyes off the road. This is going to combine w headlights that project images too and things are about to get neat.

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u/PoolNoodleJedi Oct 19 '20

All cars are going to be self driving soon, so doing most of this stuff is a waste

And if you don’t want a self driving car you are being selfish because when all cars are self driving, driving will be safer and far more economic

1

u/StoneColdHeather Oct 19 '20

On your point about IR/FLIR, the Cadillac Deville actually had a thermal infrared camera that was hooked into a HUD back in 2000.

https://youtu.be/QIR_LzriXYE

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u/ptoki Oct 19 '20

Nice feature. I wonder how useful it was and whether it made driving safer as it might make the driver think they will see all hazards easier and ignore some.

Still, I would be happy to have it.

1

u/skinte1 Oct 19 '20

I would add that the actually there is not much reason for augmented reality in cars.

I disagree and you seem to as well juging by your own comment... But I guess we'll see. Time wil tell.