TWO BITS OF NEW TECH INBOUND

1. 3D CLUSTER

Continental’s latest clever innovation puts a modern twist on the traditional gauge pod, with Genesis the first car maker to offer this spooky display in its GV80. The trick 3D cluster initially looks like any other standard two-dial cluster until an autostereoscopic camera starts tracking the driver’s eyes. The system aligns a series of parallax barriers in the instrument cluster that divide the image being projected to each eye. The effect is scales, numbers, images and navigation pointers that appear three-dimensional to the driver. Continental says it reduces fatigue and, unlike many other 3D displays, requires no special glasses to be worn. And if the clever trick is simply too cool to stop looking at, don’t worry; the camera doubles as an attention monitor and will administer a virtual slap on the wrist if you’re not paying attention to the road.

2. AUGMENTED WINDSCREEN

As head-up displays grow to dominate more of the windscreen surface, cutting-edge technology is making the available information even more useful and diverse. Numerous automotive component and tech leaders including Apple, Continental and Harman are developing socalled smart windscreens that will soon offer augmented reality in production cars. Instead of simply offering the driver numbers and messages in their line of sight, smart technology will actually project virtual images over real objects that the driver is seeing outside the car. Examples include arrows pointing at the street you are trying to find, warnings of hazards around blind corners and even enhanced night vision using images from infrared cameras to highlight invisible objects in the dark. And rather than relying on the brake lights of other cars, the system could superimpose a red halo around an entire car when it is decelerating. The possibilities are seemingly endless.