Tuesday 23 December 2014

Jaguar Land Rover working on "follow-me" Ghost Car navigation


The new tech builds on JLR's recent research into a transparent bonnet that first appeared on the Discovery Vision Concept, which saw cameras mounted underneath the vehicle that provided a live video feed to a massive head-up display that spanned the entire windshield.
A spokesperson for JLR said that both camera and head-up display technology had improved - and more importantly become cheap enough - to begin experimenting with other applications.
Dr Wolfgang Epple, director of research and technology at JLR, says that tiny screens have been applied to all pillars inside the research vehicles, which take a live video feed from outside, thus rendering them 'invisible' when needed.
This could be particularly useful when navigating a tight parking space, pulling out of a T-junction and contending with the hordes of cyclists that race along busy city streets everyday.
In-car sensors can also detect when a driver moves their head during an overtaking manoeuvre, or switch on the indicators, and automatically renders the appropriate pillar 'invisible'.
The humble windscreen has also come under scrutiny by Jaguar Land Rover's crack team, which has fitted a large head-up display that spans the width of the glass.
This so-called 360 Virtual Urban Windscreen can then take live information from the Cloud, such as fuel prices and available parking spaces, and overlay them in real time.
But better still, the technology could allow drivers to fulfil their innermost Gran Turismo fantasies and follow a "ghost car" to their intended destination rather than take often-unreliable audio cues from a traditional sat-nav system.
“Driving on city streets can be a stressful experience, but imagine being able to drive across town without having to look at road signs, or be distracted trying to locate a parking space as you drive by,” said Dr Epple.

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