Head-up displays (HUDs) are available for certain cars.
However, if a patent filing by Toyota pans out to be true, the automaker might just have a game changer on its hands.
CNET's Road Show spotted one of Toyota's recent patent filings — one that looks like it could be for an augmented windshield of sorts.
While current HUD systems rely on reflections to blast images from drivers' dashboards onto their windshields, Toyota's system grabs readings from speed and steering-angle sensors, according to CNET, to update information on your windshield in real-time. The system figures to be faster than traditional HUDs, considering it's not grabbing information from an instrument display and instead updates on-the-fly in real-time right on the windshield via its sensors.
The abstract description for this patent reads: "A head-up display apparatus for a vehicle is configured to output a display that has a convex shape in an upward direction as a whole such that a width of the display in a left/right direction, when the display is viewed from a predetermined view point, indicates a width of the vehicle. The image includes a meter that indicates an amount of predetermined parameter."
CNET describes the system as consisting of two cameras — one being placed in the cabin of the vehicle to follow the driver's view and the other being front-mounted to spot lane markings. The website points out that possibly, the most significant feature that could come from this patent filing is the ability for the HUD system to blast the vehicle's lane positioning on its dashboard, continuously updating it in real-time.
This patent panning out to be a HUD system will seemingly spell an upgrade from the lane-departure alert with steering assist that the automaker is offering customers as part of its Toyota Safety Sense technology package available for newer models.
That "safety suite," as described by Toyota, bundles the aforementioned lane-departure alert with features such as a pre-collision system, pedestrian detection, automatic braking and full-speed dynamic radar cruise control with full-stop technology and automatic high beams.
This HUD system would seemingly eliminate the need for any kind of lane-departure alert due to the lane positioning being displayed on drivers' windshields and being updated in real-time seamlessly.
