Why Head-Up Displays Are Today’s Technology For The Future

Vehicle-to-vehicle connectivity. Self-parking. Backup cameras. Over-the-air updates. The list of cool automotive features goes on and on these days. Much of the technology in the latest autos is designed around data sensing and processing to give drivers a more complete view of the road and their immediate surroundings and provide for safer and less distracted driving. One of the quickly growing technology trends for automobiles is the head-up display (HUD). Thanks to augmented reality tech, drivers are now able to get just that: a new perspective on the world around them.

It’s a view that could fundamentally change how we interface with our cars and our surroundings while we drive. Instead of a traditional dashboard, HUD enables more intelligent displays by featuring the information a driver needs at just the right time and in just the right place. This could be straightforward information such as speed, navigation, warnings and backup camera displays, or things like collision warnings and lane detection. With HUD, this all happens without requiring the driver to take their eyes off the road. Instead, everything appears to float at just the right distance on the windshield.

Head-up displays are indeed the safer way to navigate while driving. Smartphone navigation takes your eyes off the road, but also reduces our visual scan, and increases cognitive load. Smartphone distraction behind the wheel is reported to have taken more lives than alcohol.

Holding a phone while driving has been banned in a number of the US states and in many other countries, but the National Safety Council still reports that cell phone use while driving leads to 1.6 million crashes each year.

Throughout the past few years, HUDWAY team has been working to create an uncompromising alternative to the built-in vehicle HUDs, which are an expensive solution and available mostly in the luxury vehicles. After rounds and rounds of making, testing and updating prototypes, experimenting with lens curvatures, projection screens and body designs, a full-fledged aftermarket HUD device was finally developed — versatile, powerful, and affordable.

Unlike its competitors in a category of active HUDs that mirror your smartphone activity (take Navdy, for example), HUDWAY Cast has unprecedented brightness, 2.5-meter focus length, works with any navigation app, has a built-in speaker and costs significantly less. Let’s take a closer look at this HUD.

Gives A Real Head-Up Display Feel

The image from HUDWAY Cast display is taken to a lens which enlarges it to 20″ and focuses the virtual image about 9 feet or 2.8 meters in front of you. This way, it feels easier for your eyes to readjust focus from the road to the projection — just like using a luxury vehicle built-in HUD, but about a dozen times less expensive.

Bright And Contrast Image In Any conditions

A display 20 times brighter than a smartphone screen gives an excellent full-color projection even on a sunny day — on a completely transparent lens. The display brightens and dims automatically, and the projection quality does not depend on how bright your smartphone screen is.

Easy To Install

Just affix the head-up display to the dashboard and plug in the cigarette lighter socket. That’s it. Take it off the mount and put to a gloves compartment when you’re leaving the car.

Connects To Any Smartphone, Mirrors Any App

It wirelessly connects to any smartphone that supports Miracast or Airplay — and that means virtually all modern smartphones. Pairing with a smartphone is very easy, as both iOS and Android devices allow to cast the screen image to an external display wirelessly with just a swipe and a tap.

You launch a navigation app on your smartphone, select to stream it to HUDWAY Cast — et voila — enjoy driving with your directions projected in your line of sight. It works with the tablets, too.

HUDWAY went further and made an app that creates a game-changing experience, well beyond simply mirroring your phone screen. It allows you to access the most needed smartphone functions in a driving-friendly way — and makes using smartphone behind the wheel safer and less distracting.

The idea is that you mount your phone onto a magnetic holder where you can comfortably reach it, and with quick swipes and taps can answer calls, send quick message templates, share your location, or switch the music tracks — all while seeing navigation in front of your eyes.

HUDWAY Cast is available for pre-orders on IndieGoGo, so if you order now, you will get it in January 2018. Have fun exploring the technology for the future today! And safe driving!