3 On Your Side: Car Data Projected On Windshields
By Jim Donovan
PHILADELPHIA (CBS) -- "Keep your eyes on the road", it's one of the first instructions we hear when learning to drive. Now drivers have the option to have information projected in their line of sight. Does this mean added safety, or another distraction behind the wheel? 3 On Your Side Consumer Reporter Jim Donovan takes a look.
When private pilot Jerry Greenfield first saw a head-up display, it was in a flight simulator. Greenfield, "You see the flight instruments, you'll see your airspeed." Today, a growing number of automakers are building similar displays into vehicles equipment that projects things like speed or navigation into the driver's field of vision. Greenfield says, "I like the idea of being able to look straight ahead and seeing all the information I need without having to look away from the road."
Ron Montoya of Edmunds.com has test driven vehicles with the technology built in. He feels these types of displays make a drive safer. He says, "If you think about it when you look at your speed gauges or your navigation screen you are taking your eyes off the road even if it's only for a brief moment."
Some companies are developing displays that would allow drivers to do things like receive and respond to text messages, or post to social media all while keeping their eyes on the road. According to Montoya, "The technology seems promising, and it seems to sort of integrate a couple of smartphone features which we're not really getting from the factory systems."
AAA says head up displays with essential driving information do have the potential to make drivers safer behind the wheel but more testing is needed to study the impact they have on driver distraction. Jacob Nelson, Director of Traffic Safety for AAA says, "The risk though is that if we are projecting information on the windshield or in the forward driving environment that isn't integral to the core task of driving, then we're overloading the driver."
Right now head-up displays are built into a small number of car models. But, experts point out that often technology appears first in high end models and as it gains popularity and prices come down it spreads to more models within a vehicle fleet.
