The BMW colorful HUD technology
Posted in BMW by admin - Nov 22, 2011
In the past two decades, we are slowly seeing technologies first used for wars being implemented onto our everyday equipment, gadgets, and applications.
The HUD or Head-Up Display for example has been used for jet fighters since 1958 to keep feeding the pilot vital information. The HUD technology has been used by commercial planes sine the 1970s and in the early 2000′s used for cars.
BMW claims to be the first carmaker in Europe to make available to the market an HUD technology. Owners of the BMW 5-Series can get info about their rpm, speed and more while they keep their eyes on the road.
According to the German car builder, a driver normally takes a second to glimpse the instrument clusters on the dash. This gap is enough for a car to go for 14 meters more while cruising at a speed of 50 kph without his eyes on the road.
Aside from keeping the driver’s eyes on the road, BMW also found out that the driver can absorb the information via the HUD faster compared to conventional gauges on the dash.
On today’s fighter jets, the data is beamed to the canopy via mirrors then on a vertical panel just on the line of sight of the pilot. This system though might be impractical for cars, so BMW instaed makes use of a thin layer of foil attached to the windshield so the driver can get information about his car and his driving.
The new BMW 3-Series will be getting this HUD technology. BMW also makes use of different colors to make it easier for the driver to distinguish a set of information from the other.