Distracted Drivers – It’s Heads Up or Heads Off

Burney Simpson

Heads Up!

Distracted drivers are grabbing attention in Detroit with Head Up Displays (HUD) and Human Machine Interfaces (HMI) being demoed by the likes of BMW, Continental and Denso International.

Denso is showing a simulated car cockpit that displays warning and safety systems that may one day be installed your car, according to The Globe and Mail. The idea is to help the distracted driver sort through all the bits of information that are coming in, Pat Bassett, Denso VP of research and engineering, tells the paper at the North American International Auto Show.

“We want to make it intuitive without the driver taking their eyes off the road,” said Bassett.

Bassett says his firm is researching driver distractions with MIT, Honda, Subaru, and Jaguar Range Rover in an organization called the Advanced Human Factors Evaluator for Automotive Distraction (AHEAD).

Denso says AHEAD is a global, collaborative effort that will create a toolkit to evaluate the growing number of distractions bedeviling drivers, including voice interfaces, touch screens, HUDs, and multi-function controllers. The toolkit can be used to develop new HMI that are intuitive and safe, according to Denso.

SERIES 7 HUD

BMW has been a technology leader with its Series 7 HUD that displays the vehicle’s speed and the road MPH on the lower part of the windshield. The driver doesn’t need to lower her eyes to the speedometer, so eyes are kept on the road.

BMW recently enlarged the display of the HUD info and put it in color, making it even easier to monitor your speed as you drive 20 miles over the limit past that police cruiser you didn’t notice. This video from last October gives a sense of BMW’s work.

Meanwhile, parts supplier Continental continues to build on its Augmented Reality – Head Up Display that shows vehicle speed, navigation, adaptive cruise control, lane departure warnings, and speed limit warnings.