Certain premium cars and sports cars nowadays are available with what is called a head-up display (or HUD for short). But what exactly are they and are they worth getting in a car?
Basically, a head-up display is a digital transparent image projected onto the windshield of a car, it displays information within view of where the driver will be looking while driving forward.
Although it’s meant to be in the driver’s eye line, it shouldn’t be large enough or positioned in a way that it could obstruct the driver’s view what’s directly ahead.
What does a head-up display show?
A car’s head-up display can show all kinds of information to the driver depending on the exact model and the driver’s preference. They can potentially show the car’s current speed, current engine revs, various temperature readings, the current time, sat-nav instructions or even what radio station is currently selected.
The idea behind a head-up display is to keep the driver’s eyes on the road even when they want to check on things like the examples mentioned just now. This should make the journey safer, because the driver won’t be staring down at the dashboard to see what their current speed is for instance.
If a car has sign recognition technology, then the head-up display can even show the current speed limit right next to the current speed the car is travelling at.
Head-up displays are a piece of technology which will likely become quite common among even family cars and affordable superminis. For the meantime though, you’ll realistically have to look to premium brands to get a car with such a gadget.
Are there third-party head-up displays?
There are certain companies which offer small box-shaped devices that aim to give drivers a head-up display for pretty much any car, although the range of products to choose nowadays is currently limited.
These third-party devices mostly work by linking to either your phone’s internal GPS or finding a signal of their own from a satellite to estimate your car’s speed. Apps which work in a similar fashion have also been developed for Apple and Android smartphones.
While these third-party apps can potentially add a cool and useful display to even the cheapest of cars, there are for now at least more limitations when compared to official manufacturer devices. The range of info third-party devices can display is usually more limited and the accuracy of the current speed shown can be less accurate than official manufacturer displays as well.
