Helpful or annoying? Continental has developed a system that indicates obstacles to the driver.
BERLIN: Distraction at the wheel is one of the most common — and most fatal — causes of accidents on the road.
Whether it is checking our smartphones, looking at the passengers in the car, or even looking down to check your fuel gauge or speedometer, the number of possible distractions is countless.
In just half a second of distraction — the normal time it takes one to re-adjust to the road after looking away — you'll have driven blind for a distance of about 17 metres at a speed of 120kph.
For the latter of the three causes mentioned earlier, however, carmakers believe that they have created a solution with the head-up display.
Head-up displays project important information such as speed or information from the navigation system onto the windshield in front of the driver so that they need not look away from the road ahead.
"These systems bring the information to exactly where it's needed: the driver's field of vision," said car reporter and tester Holger Ippen.
As the driver no longer needs to constantly switch between near and far-sight to check the speedometer, this means they are also less fatigued when driving, explained Ippen.
While they have long been featured in luxury vehicles from brands such as BMW or Audi, head-up displays are now becoming commonplace in the less flashier models.
Among other factors, Ippen sees the main reason for this is the increasingly compact design of head-up technology, which means that they can now fit in the instrument panels of smaller cars much easier than ever before.
"Head-up displays are now very popular, especially since the cheaper version with the small Plexiglas disc in more compact and mid-range vehicles came onto the market," said Ippen.
In this version mentioned by Ippen, the display does not feature on the large windshield but on a small folding Plexiglas disc sitting on the dashboard.
Costs for this version range between US$600 (RM2,486) to US$850 (RM3,521), but the system can be significantly more expensive if the data is projected onto the actual windshield of the car.
For this incarnation, a special windscreen must be installed in which a wedge film is incorporated. If these are not properly fitted, the result can be a fuzzy, unclear display, according to Ippen.
For either type of display, head-up displays can quickly overshoot their target of keeping drivers focused, says the German Road Safety Council (DVR).
"The display should not be overloaded with information, otherwise it can irritate the driver," said Welf Stankowitz from DVR.
He suggests that systems be limited to basic data such as speed, any indication of gear change and hazard warnings. How these warnings are presented to the driver is another matter of contention.
If, for example, a driver has already seen that a pedestrian is on the road ahead, the assistance system points to the obstacle with a warning sound and the head-up display also flashes. This could be irritating and distracting, warned Stankowitz.
Head-up displays are also available as retrofit systems, with variations ranging from apps for smartphones to small projection devices that are mounted on the cockpit, and many are quite affordable.
But whether cheap or expensive, Ippen warns that he is "yet to be convinced so far" of the viability of these options, while the road safety experts also strongly advise against the retrofitting option.
"The procedure is often complicated, leaving many displays out of focus. Also, since the smartphone is then placed on the dashboard and must be aligned again and again, this can cause even more distraction," said Stankowitz.
