Car HUD

[SicEmBaylor]

So I was driving and wondering if there is some kit you can buy to install a HUD to your car windshield.

And if not, why haven't car companies started offering this feature?

[SoonerInKCMO]

Some cars have had them as options in the past (some model of Cadillac and maybe the Corvette IIRC). Not many people seemed to like them.

[Jimminy Crimson]

Car HUD = :confused:

TIA!

[Vaevictis]

Car HUD displays data onto the windshield. I have one in my car, and it displays my current speed, and various alerts onto the windshield (like low gas, check engine, etc.)

Very nice for keeping track of things, because it's always inside of my peripheral vision (unlike the dashboard).

[slickdawg]

Heads Up display

[SicEmBaylor]

Car HUD displays data onto the windshield. I have one in my car, and it displays my current speed, and various alerts onto the windshield (like low gas, check engine, etc.)

Very nice for keeping track of things, because it's always inside of my peripheral vision (unlike the dashboard).

Did you install it on your own or did it come with a car?

[Octavian]

I thought for SicEm was gonna take a swipe at the Housing and Urban Development Agency....

dissapointed...

[Vaevictis]

Came with. (Was really answering Jimminy's question).

The problem with installing the HUD later is that it requires a special windshield setup to make sure it reflects properly, and *most* HUDs are recessed into the dashboard -- if the recess isn't already there, then you probably can't do that.

(I don't know if the recess is absolutely necessary, but I think it helps the windshield reflection because of the contrast between the lighted LCD type display and the shadowy recess around it).

You *may* be able to rig your own kit, depending on how far you're willing to go. You'd want a backlit LCD panel, and a mechanism for providing the contrast mentioned above if you find it necessary. Also, most modern vehicles these days have a serial or parallel port accessable in the cabin that gives access to the on-board system diagnostics; you could hook this up to some kind of embedded processor dealio and have it control the LCD and poll the car for the data.

Some people also will install full PCs in their car (for GPS, war driving, etc); this could fill the same function.

[mrowl]

I had one in my Grand Prix, I loved it, showed speed, radio station, bright lights, blinkers... I wish they put them in more cars.

[KABOOKIE]

A heads up display in a car is about as worthless as a stick shift in a plane.

[Vaevictis]

A heads up display in a car is about as worthless as a stick shift in a plane.

Irrefutable evidence of your ignorance ;p

Anything that keeps my eyes on the road is not worthless.

[SicEmBaylor]

Irrefutable evidence of your ignorance ;p

Anything that keeps my eyes on the road is not worthless.

Exactly, I want basic information like my speed, heading, etc. displayed on the windshield. Also, it seems like I heard or saw something like a night vision car hud advertised or proposed. It wouldn't make your entire windshield "night vision" but it gives you a small square to see through which I think could be pretty handy.

[mrowl]

Exactly, I want basic information like my speed, heading, etc. displayed on the windshield. Also, it seems like I heard or saw something like a night vision car hud advertised or proposed. It wouldn't make your entire windshield "night vision" but it gives you a small square to see through which I think could be pretty handy.

they still offer this on the caddys, and lexus I think.

[KABOOKIE]

Irrefutable evidence of your ignorance ;p

Anything that keeps my eyes on the road is not worthless.


So how does focusing your eye three feet away on a windshield obstruction keep your eyes on the road? ;)

Now I agree the night time vision across the windshield would be dope!

[SicEmBaylor]

So how does focusing your eye three feet away on a windshield obstruction keep your eyes on the road? ;)

Now I agree the night time vision across the windshield would be dope!

Because a HUD doesn't obstruct your view of the road. You can see through it to see the road while also getting all the information you'd normally have to look at the dash or elsewhere for.

[OUDoc]

So how does focusing your eye three feet away on a windshield obstruction keep your eyes on the road? ;)

Now I agree the night time vision across the windshield would be dope!
The image a HUD projects is supposedly floating about 8 feet in front of your car (if that makes sense), so you really don't have to adjust your eyes much. My Grand Prix had one too. It was cool.
BTW, I replaced the windshield after a stray rock hit my car. The special windshield apparently isn't absolutely necessary.

[Vaevictis]

So how does focusing your eye three feet away on a windshield obstruction keep your eyes on the road? ;)

On my car, it projects it just above the far edge of the hood. I can keep my eyes on the road, and see it with what I call my "near" peripheral vision, and I can look at the head's up display and see the road with my "near" peripheral vision. Looking at anything below the top of my dash pushes the road to my "far" peripheral vision, and looking at the road pushes the dash there also.

(The difference between "near" and "far" peripheral vision (and these are terms I made up), is that with "near" peripheral vision, you can still make out details. "Far" is on the edge of your peripheral vision where you can mostly make out motion only.)

The heads-up display displays things in positions so that I don't really have to "read" the small icons to know that it's turned on, I can tell which icon turned on by its position relative to the HUGE speedometer in the center of the display, and the speedometer display is big enough that I don't have to look right at it to be able to read it.

[mdklatt]

Exactly, I want basic information like my speed, heading, etc. displayed on the windshield.

Do you shoot a lot of instrument approaches in your car? ;)

[SicEmBaylor]

Do you shoot a lot of instrument approaches in your car? ;)

Oh man...you have no idea....

[KABOOKIE]

Seriously though, if you old fuggers in your Lincolns and Cadillac's can't "sense" how fast you're driving then you don't need to be on the road anyway. :D

[Vaevictis]

Seriously though, if you old fuggers in your Lincolns and Cadillac's can't "sense" how fast you're driving then you don't need to be on the road anyway. :D

Heh, my sense is limited to "safe speed" (the speeds at which I tend to drive at) and "unsafe speed." There is of course also the speed at which Wilbur will give you a ticket, and that speed is not always the same thing as "unsafe speed." That's why I need the speedometer :p

[mdklatt]

Heh, my sense is limited to "safe speed" (the speeds at which I tend to drive at) and "unsafe speed." There is of course also the speed at which Wilbur will give you a ticket, and that speed is not always the same thing as "unsafe speed." That's why I need the speedometer :p

With your over-reliance on the speedometer you'll rue the day when you have a pitot tube blockage. Rue. The. Day.

[Vaevictis]

I had my brakes fail on me. When I was going 70 mph down a highway. When there had just been an accident up ahead and I needed to slam on my breaks. So I pulled onto the shoulder. On the inside. Only, there was no shoulder, just a concrete divider. Which I drove up, and ended up with two wheels on top of the divider, and two on the ground. Then when I got around the cars I needed to get around, I drove back down it, and managed to pull off to the right shoulder and coast till I stopped.

I sincerely doubt that, after that experience, I shall be phased by anything lesser.

[leftfield]

heh, we use the term 'hud' to describe dropping a deuce...as in, 'I'm gonna go drop a hud'. I wouldn't do that in your car though, just sayin'.

[Vaevictis]

murder. just sayin'. :D