GM Looks to Augment Reality with Next-gen Windshield Display Technology

General Motors continues to develop next-generation technologies that indicate a more forward-thinking approach for the once sluggish company. Last month it was a humanoid robot; this month it's a next-generation windshield designed to augment a driver's reality, MLive.com reported. The automaker announced yesterday it's Warren, Mich.-based research team is working with several universities on a futuristic head-up-display windshield that uses night vision, navigation and camera-based sensor technologies to improve driver visibility and object detection. In other words, the technology projects objects a driver might not see onto a full-size windshield. “Let’s say you’re driving in fog, we could use the vehicle’s infrared cameras to identify where the edge of the road is and the lasers could ‘paint’ the edge of the road onto the windshield so the driver knows where the edge of the road is,” explained Thomas Seder, GM's group lab manager for research and development. HUD systems have been around for decades, but GM's is the first to turn the entire windshield into a display. It does so by coating the glass with a series of transparent phosphors which emit visible light when excited by a compact laser beam. Additionally, the automaker says the HUD system could be combined with automated sign-reading technology to alert drivers of speed limits, impending construction and other potential problems on the road ahead. GM is still developing the system and has not yet targeted it for production but says some of the supporting technology could end up in vehicles in the near-term future.