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Wednesday October 18, 2006
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 Siemens VDO has come up with a dandy idea that is sure to make you shout--but it won't be because you're in a car crash. The technology scans ahead for road signs and alerts you to them before you can say, "Dangerous curves ahead!"
The premise may be simple, but the technology surrounding the idea is far from simple. A camera will sit toward the front of your car and scan the road for any signs or information that may be useful to the driver. Once it finds a sign, the system lets you know it's there; it can then either do nothing more than that or make the correct driving move according to the sign's directions. In other words, let's say you're riding down A-1-A in cruise-control mode, listening to Jimmy Buffett and enjoying the Florida breeze, and the system recognizes a speed-reduction sign ahead of you. If you choose to set the system up in such a way, the technology will automatically reduce your speed to stay in accord with the limit, and you can continue to cruise as you sing along with "He Went to Paris." The system comes with a convenient head-up display, which shows the aforementioned warning signals and important information (like roadwork) that may be ahead. Siemens VDO expects this recognition system to go into production in 2008. Post by Don Reisinger Via Ubergizmo.
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October 18, 2006 4:18 PM
I've been longing for a serious, real heads-up style display in cars for a long long time now. They've been long overdue, imho, and its about time we saw something like this in more models of vehicles. I vaugely remember one type of car coming with an IR HUD in a small square on the windshield a while back to make it easier to see animals and such in the road at night, but seriously-this kind of thing should be in every car by now!
October 19, 2006 9:59 AM
Living in a state where the attention spans of drivers are already in exceedingly short supply (FL), a gadget such as this would probably cause more accidents than it would prevent. Especially with today's generation of drivers. THe up and coming drivers, kids who were born with game controllers in their cribs, should be able to take advantage of such technology, especially if a successful campaign to roll this tech out to driver's ed classes is made. Cadillac came up with the night vision HUD by placing a low light camera in the grille, and I haven't seen any statistics saying whether it's helped or not.