Monday, April 9, 2012

Design Inspired by Fighter Jets

Finally, a commercially available automobile will come equipped with a heads up operating display (HUD).  The 2013 Acadia Denali from GM, an SUV that starts at $44,600 will offer a HUD that shows the driver the engine RPM, speed and what gear the car is currently in.

Fighter jet have had HUDs for years and I've always been surprised that, at least to the best of my knowledge, this technology has never before found its was into automobiles.

In terms of safety, I think this technology should be just as, if not more safe, than using the more traditional dials found on automobiles.  Traditional dials require you to move your eyes from the road down to the dashboard.  Using a HUD you don't have to move your eyes off the road; you look through the semi-opaque display to see the road.

Nothing says "this exciting new feature is ready to help you conquer
the road" quite like a subtle gradient from light grey to dark grey- good work GM

It's not as thrilling as a alert flashing in red when an incoming heat seeking missile is locked onto your location but it's a start at making the driving experience a bit more exciting.

You can view more information on the GM website here.

18 comments:

  1. It is cool that cars are getting HUD's, and I've wondered when it would finally happen for a while now, but I do hope they don't prove to be a distraction.

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  2. This is actually really cool, even though it may be expensive and is only in development, awesome news in my opinion buddy.

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  3. I'm really impressed with the steps that Ford and GM have been taking to make their vehicles more tech savvy... it's paying off, too.

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  4. I see they still have the normal dials in the dash still. Seems kind redundant. Now that they've cleared some space, they should put a display screen there to play online videos. That'll be safe and fun!

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  5. Pretty impressive. Maybe in addition to airbag who knows we may get parapullup in future too. I used to think that when Irobot kind of self-driving cars may come in future after my death looks like I may get to drive rocket to my kid's house on moon.

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  6. pretty rad I must say. About time we got cool futuristic stuff going on in our cars.

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  7. WOw that's awesome. Just lookit how it;ll affect cars in the future! Maybe a few cons? Maybe it could be easier to tamper with or break? Regardless it's pretty awesome seeming.

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  8. Fighter jet pilots are trained to read data from their HUDs... i wonder how safe this will be to the average driver...

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  9. Hey, this post was written in French. This is why I can't understand it at all. I tried to use Google Translator, and I figured out this is about cars, which are magic that are powered by wishes.

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  10. When I can order my new Escalade with Sidewinder missiles, then we'll talk.

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  11. Amazing, I can't wait for more cars to have these. Why not have a flashing red alert when you come close to an obstacle, as the flashes get faster as you approach the object?

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  12. Y'know, there's an aftermarket mod for this already. :D

    It'd be nice for them to come pre-packaged like this though - it's supposedly better for you with night driving.

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