NEWSAugmented Reality in Cars — the Companies & Tech Driving Us into the Future
While autonomous vehicles are almost assuredly the future of personal transportation, we are likely many years from seeing self-driving cars become as ubiquitous as manually-driven ones, as the auto industry has a myriad of government regulations and other constraints to contend with. Until then, augmented reality is looking like the next big thing in automotive technology.
In fact, AR in automobiles could reach mainstream relevance with most consumers before AR headsets or smartglasses. With cars, there's no cumbersome, headworn display to act as a hurdle to adoption, as content is projected onto windshields or dashboard-mounted displays. Miniaturization of computing hardware is also not as big a concern with AR in cars when compared to the challenges of embedding the same technology in a pair of smartglasses.
In many ways, the benefits of AR in cars is not unlike that seen in current applications in the enterprise arena or the use cases envisioned for consumers, streamlining relevant information, such as speed, turn-by-turn directions, or the track information of a currently-playing song, into the user's field of view. And for cars, AR also serves as a safety feature as well as a convenience, allowing drivers to keep their eyes on the road rather than instrument panels or navigation and infotainment displays.
Future advances of the technology will also place real-time content in even closer context with the driver's surroundings. For example, navigation prompts can be overlaid on the driver's view of the actual road rather than via a map depiction on the windshield (effectively blurring the lines between reality and virtual data). Using this dynamic, employing computer vision and artificial intelligence, AR can help draw a driver's attention toward hazards as well as points of interest in real time.
And when autonomous vehicles finally do make it to market in large numbers, AR will still serve as a means to show passengers what the self-driving car sees on the road, displaying relevant information on the windshield and other windows as the trip progresses.
Augmented reality HUDs are the future of car navigation systems. Rather than distracting the driver, AR navigation actually improves safety as the warnings and traffic data are placed right on the windshield. Moreover, with the rise of self-driving cars and enhanced auto control mechanisms, AR systems will enhance entertainment and communication within the car. We believe that WayRay's AR systems will bring us one step closer to advanced connected cars.
AR in Cars Today
Several models on the road today from BMW, Volvo, Chevrolet, Mazda, Lexus, Jaguar, Mercedes-Benz, MINI, and Toyota, among others, already boast AR features. The first-generation examples of AR in cars act mostly as heads up displays (HUD), presenting data from gauges, navigation prompts, and infotainment selections. In other words, it's like Google Glass for your automobile.
In addition to car-based solutions, automakers have also begun to apply augmented reality to the world of automobiles via mobile applications. Companies including BMW and Hyundai's Genesis imprint have developed AR owner's manuals. When installed on the owner's mobile device, the apps use computer vision to identify components of the interior cabin or engine, overlaying relevant information over the car's real world components to take the mystery out of owning an automobile once and for all.
Tech Companies Making AR for Cars
Similar to the tech industry, the auto industry relies on an ecosystem of vendors to supply the various parts of a vehicle. In the realm of augmented reality technology, the same holds true, as there are a number of companies that provide hardware and software to carmakers.
When it comes to hardware, the most important component is the display. Most implementations involve mirroring digital content via LCD, LED, or DLP (Digital Light Processing) and projecting data onto the windshield or a transparent dashboard display.
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