How augmented reality transforms the car windshield into a virtual screen

© Courtesy of AGC Automotive Europe
At CES 2022, joined forces to present augmented reality windshield display technology.

What if all the information you need while driving was no longer displayed on a dashboard, but projected directly onto your windshield? This kind of augmented reality display already exists for motorcyclists. Now French startup EyeLights wants to adapt its technology to cars. In collaboration with the automotive glazing manufacturer AGC, a demonstration aimed at wooing carmakers from around the world has been staged at CES 2022.

This technology essentially involves showing drivers all the information they need in the form of an augmented reality display directly on the car windshield. This would include the car’s current speed, as well as navigation data and route guidance, safety distances and the detection of cyclists or slow vehicles.

Other information, such as entertainment settings, could also be read directly from the windshield, with no need for drivers to take their eyes off the road. This technology can create a huge virtual screen (up to 550 inches) and a projection distance of up to 50 meters from the driver. Note that all this information remains visible with sunglasses.

This system promises to considerably improve the active safety of the motorist and their passengers by displaying information in specific places on the windshield, well within the driver’s field of vision. In this way, the driver remains constantly focused on the road.

According to EyeLights’ chiefs, screens are one day destined to disappear from car dashboards altogether. This augmented reality interface is today billed as disruptive, delivering a driving experience that is both new and safer than ever.

Now, the objective for AGC and EyeLights is to convince manufacturers to integrate this technology into their future production models. Renault is reportedly among the first automakers to be interested.

See this new technology in action in this video: youtu.be/CrV3dG-ep84

David Bénard