Apparently GM has been busy, working on early versions of a system that will turn windshields into heads-up displays. I think it was about two years ago when I first saw commercials for cars that projected your speed onto the windshield. Immediately my imagination went crazy – I thought it was the beginning of those really cool heads-up displays that you see on vehicles in science fiction.

I started thinking of what else you could do with that sort of technology. The first thing that came to mind was to move information from the dashboard to the windshield: your speed, gas tank’s gauge and whatever else you might fancy.

Now of course, there are dangers to having things displayed on the windshield. The big concern is that they may get in the way of seeing what’s on the road. Having them more prominently displayed might also cause drivers to look at them more often, causing a distraction. Both of those problems can be resolved by having some sort button on the steering wheel that toggles the display.

GM’s examples are even cooler than my initial ideas though: they have the system highlight the edge of the road in foggy conditions and pick out signs along the way and bring them to your attention with an outline. It seems that the system only highlights one thing at a time right now, but it’s not much of a stretch to imagine they’ll be able to do something like full road highlighting to make driving at night easier.

GM's HUD showing the edge of the road in fog

GM's HUD pointing out the speed limit sign

What excites me the most about this technology is the possibility for a GPS system where the instructions and path are drawn onto the windshield. This might actually make using a GPS safer, as you won’t have to look away from the road to check your path – it would be drawn onto the road! I made a really crude mock up of what the overlay could look like using a picture of the King St. and Weber St. intersection in Waterloo from Google Maps with Street View.

Windshield GPS Overlay
(Click to view higher resolution)

I really hope that GM can expand on this technology and make it affordable. I’d really love to see the applications of this make it to consumers.

Source: GM Makes Your Entire Windshield a Head-Up Display @ Wired.com