Among all discussions about autonomous cars and driving assistance features that eventually look like that, people forget that the traffic still kills a lot of people every day. More than driving systems that avoid accidents, we need better drivers around. In that sense, a driving assistance feature that helps you drive better has its value. This is what the augmented reality head-up display in VW ID cars seems to offer, as this video shows.

Christian Stadler seized the chance to show how it works after Volkswagen finally fixed its electric cars' operating system. Stadler is now testing an ID.4, and it is certainly much better than the pre-production car Ben Sullins got to test in California. Having the augmented reality head-up display – or AR HUD, as Stadler calls it – is evidence that it already has the software upgrade.

Stadler first describes all the alerts the AR HUD gives while on cruise control and also while navigating. Anyone that ever used Waze or other navigation systems may have probably taken the wrong path because of not understanding what they should do next. We have no idea if the driver below was using a navigation system, but the danger posed with their crazy maneuvers shows what the AR HUD could help to avoid.

With the use of arrows that show the right path at a distance and grow bigger as you approach the indicated ways, the AR HUD tries to make sure the driver in charge will not make mistakes instead of just turning the wheel or pressing the brakes for them. It is something that relies on the driver, and that enforces their responsibility in doing the right thing.

A long time ago, Jeremy Clarkson said that the best safety device would be to put a dagger on the steering wheel pointing to the driver. Although that was pure irony, it carries a pertinent alert on how people would be a lot more careful if they knew that doing anything wrong could cost their lives.

In that sense, the AR HUD takes an opposite approach towards traffic safety and driving aids compared to other solutions. Instead of taking responsibility from the drivers, it gives them better tools to be more responsible. In times in which people glue crystals and other cutting objects to the airbag covers of their cars, it may help them wake up to the fact that they are in charge – even when they decide to hand that responsibility to anyone or anything else.

Source: Battery Life

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