Volkswagen's upcoming, all-electric I.D., previewed in concept form a few months ago at the Paris Motor Show, is as important to the company as the original Beetle and Golf. The concept car showed off all kinds of futuristic tech that seemed like fantasy, but one of the I.D.'s coolest feature will make it to production–its heads-up display.
Speaking toAutocar, Volkswagen design boss Klaus Bischoff confirmed that the company was hard at work making the I.D.'s "augmented HUD" a reality when the car reaches production in 2020. Normally, we don't get too excited about HUDs, because in their current state, they're little more than gimmicks. But the I.D.'s promises some game-changing features.
"Augmented" here refers to augmented reality, where projections are used to display information as if it's 50 feet ahead of the driver. With this technology, the I.D. will be able to project street directions in a way that looks like they're on the actual roads, as shown above.
Other automakers, like Jaguar Land Rover, have experimented with similar augmented reality system, though only in concept form. It looks like VW will be the first to get this technology into production.
Following Volkswagen's increasingly-costly diesel-emissions scandal, it desperately needs an electric car hit. With boundary-pushing technology like this, VW might just have one.
A car enthusiast since childhood, Chris Perkins served as Road & Track's engineering nerd and Porsche apologist.
