Looking to enhance safety in city confines and creating a less stressful driving environment, Jaguar Land Rover is testing a new 360-degree Virtual Urban Windscreen. The system enhances normal driver sightlines by using additional live video feeds from cameras positioned on the A-, B- and C-pillars to make them transparent, thereby eliminating blind spots. Working in conjunction with an advanced Head-Up display, it also can provide supplemental information and routing guidance as well as highlight other potentially unseen road hazards, be they human or vehicular.
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An extension of elements found in the automaker’s Transparent Hood and Virtual Windscreen presented earlier this year, JLR’s latest tweak on the technology may be more fully leveraged by connecting it to the Cloud. In that configuration, everything from business names and the availability of parking space to gas station locations and fuel prices could be displayed on the windshield to minimize look-away distraction. The system also introduces "Follow-Me Ghost Car Navigation," which projects an image of a pilot vehicle that can be easily trailed to a selected destination point.
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In showing the new 360-degree Virtual Urban Windscreen, Dr. Wolfgang Epple, Director of Research and Technology, Jaguar Land Rover, noted the goal is to reduce accidents and enhance the urban driving experience using tools that will improve visibility and provide critical input in a timely manner. "If we can keep the driver’s eyes on the road ahead and present information in a non-distracting way, we can help them make better decisions in the most demanding and congested environments." No word yet as to when we might see JLR’s 360-degree Virtual Urban Windscreen in a production model.
More Safety Technology News…
Audi is now testing new fuel-saving traffic-light-recognition technology
Subaru is introducing its next-gen EyeSight driver-assist system on select 2015 models
2014 Volvos offer a new cyclist-detection safety system
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