A heads-up display, or “HUD,” seems to be an obvious way to keep a driver’s eyes safely on the road. These displays project things like driving speed and GPS directions on the bottom of a driver-side windshield to solve the problem of the driver having to look away to find it. In 2013 alone, federal statistics blamed 3,154 U.S. deaths on distracted driving. Displays like this are used in race cars, and they’re already available on expensive luxury cars.
The problem is most of us don’t drive luxury cars. A successful Kickstarter campaign to finance development of HUDWAY Glass—an inexpensive, complete HUD system that can sit on a dashboard in front of the driver—was just completed last month at more than 620 percent of its original funding goal.
The people behind the campaign are the developers of the successful HUDWAY GPS and HUD app for iPhone and Android phones. But unlike the apps, HUDWAY Glass offers an integrated phone cradle with a special screen to solve problems that can occur when you’re projecting directly from an HUD phone app onto a windshield: think image-doubling, low visibility during the day, and image size. HUDWAY Glass looks particularly neat for GPS directions, since they’re “drawn” right onto the road.
Far too many people use their smartphones while they drive. On the typical 10-mile trip, according to HUDWAY, reading directions from a phone and checking the speedometer can result in driving blind for more than half a mile. This new program works with any phone app that supports heads-up display mode.
