Lets talk HUD's (heads up displays)
 

Did some searching, and it doesnt seem to yield many results.

I absolutely love the look of a nice HUD, not a big fan of the new F56 one though. I'm talking fighter jet style. I'm a pilot, the mini is close enough to the cockpit, but its missing that HUD aspect. I have seen aftermarket ones that look like 20.00 pieces of crap. Anybody know where I can get a real quality unit?

:thumbsup: I totally would be interested in knowing info on this as well.

A quick search and I came up with one from Garmin for $150.
https://buy.garmin.com/en-US/US/prod134348.html

Also there are apps to run on your phone, rest them on a sticky mat on your dash, and they project directions.
Never tried it, but could be a fun/free experiment.

It's not the quality of the HUD unit which is the problem. It's the windshield glass. Those HUD units which reflect a mirror image into your windscreen always show up with some amount of double vision.

In BMWs which have HUD from the factory, the windscreen is a special anti-reflective version designed to display HUD. I discovered this when I almost bought the wrong replacement windshield at one point.

Mazda (and I think the new Mini) has gone an interesting route: they project the HUD onto a separate piece of plastic in front of the driver's line-of-sight. Solves for having an expensive windscreen but doesn't have the same impact.

The nice thing about a true HUD unit is that the focal point is the same as the road ahead. There's no need to adjust back and forth (which an iphone app reflecting into the windscreen forces you to do). As a result, it's a very natural view of your car's speed and navigation instructions.

Lexus, Hyundai, BMW, Mazda, Chevy, and Mini all have HUD available as an option now. I think the newest BMWs have the best ones. They're detail rich and full colored.

Technically, the focal point of a true HUD is CLOSER to the focal point of the road (in fact, as close as physically possible) but it is not the same. You still have to adjust your vision to focus on the projection, which is only a few feet from your eyes, to the road, which is 20+ feet away. Certainly an HUD allows for quicker focal adjustment, but you will still need to refocus your eyes between glances.

The true benefit of an HUD is that it allows you to maintain complete peripheral vision of the road while you check your display. Since your eyes are still pointed in almost the exact same direction as the road, your peripheral vision is much more effective than when glancing at the top left corner of the dash,or even worse, the middle of the dashboard where most integrated screens are.

Another thing worth noting is that there are special films that you can buy to adhere to the windshield only in the space where the HUD projects, to increase their visibility in aftermarket installations. Surely not as effective as the special coatings manufactures apply to the glass, but much better than nothing. And I assume most manufacturers only apply the special coating to the area of the windshield which receives the HUD projection and not the entire thing, as this would not be very cost effective, and possibly even distracting.

My M-I-L's Buick (that she totaled last year) had HUD showing speed, headlight status and turn signal activity. I drove it a few times and really like the line of sight feature. What I didn't like was the 'mind' numbing cast iron feel of the leather seats but that's another story. I wouldn't go out of my way to retrofit HUD but if a new motor looms on the horizon, the option would certainly be a strong consideration.

In an aircraft HUD, they use collimating lenses to project the HUD image at infinity. That means the pilot does not have to re-focus his or her eyes to look at the imagery and then look back out the window.

The HUDs we used also were projected onto holographs embedded in the combiner plate. The holos were done to reflect one very specific wavelength of light, which was the wavelength that the projector was set up to put out. That greatly reduced the problem of reflections.

I don't know how much if any of this is used in automotive HUDs, though. I'm guessing the collimating lenses might be inexpensive enough these days to use, but maybe not the holographic combiner.

its funny - i was going to add that in order for the focal distance to match, the car would have to project a hologram into the distance, outside of the car. something that poses many liability, safety and distraction concerns for everyone else on the road; sort of negating the safety benefit of an HUD to begin with. and yes, you can bet that something called a "holographic combiner" would carry a hefty price tag in the world of Mini add-on packages.

Pilot here, can confirm :nod:

Everything aftermarket looks tacky, not a fan of the "HUD screen" in the new gen minis. Oh well.

The BMW Heads-Up is transmitted from a rather large box located in front of the instrument cluster. I don't know if the focal length is infinite, but it's far easier to see than an aftermarket setup. Since a lot of manufacturers are working on Augmented Reality for their cars, I would expect HUD technology to evolve and be more common in the next few years. You'll start to see overlays for navigation systems and Points of Interest setups.

Looks like a new solution is coming soon, I just read this on Autoblog today. Its called Navdy and is an aftermarket system that will go on sale soon. :)

http://www.autoblog.com/2014/08/05/n...and-a-sense-o/

WOW very well done in my opinion, count me in. I like everything about that, had no idea it was being developed.

It does look promising, and for near $500 I hope it would be haha

Looks cool. The best thing is the Nav directions in front of you. What cares about the speed or the temp and stuff. But $500? I think I can listen to Siri!

Why are you guys saying $500. At $299 for the next 28 days (as of 8/7/14) it seems like a reasonably priced solution.

The thing that concerns me is ease of moving it from my MCSc to my Jeep GCSRT or storing it securely in my convertible.

Otherwise, I think it's pretty slick. If they can integrate Waze and Escort Live, I'm completely sold.

Because it would 500 bucks by the time I wanted to spend money on that accessory and not something else haha :lol:

Lol, right on!

Well if anyone decides to pull the trigger on a pre-order Navdy, I'd appreciate if you use my referral link:

http://www.navdy.com/FDbtWVLA

Cheers!

Since I am a Graphic Designer I must say that is a slick looking webpage! :thumbsup: