There’s a lot happening on the streets today. Whether it is a short sprint down to the mall or a nice drive down the open highways, absolutely anything can happen. Remember the time when you were cruising down the expressway and your mind wandered off for a brief moment trying to recollect which toll-way exit it was that you were supposed to take. Well, your car must have travelled over a hundred metres in that short span of time. And that’s a conservative estimate at best. Incredible eh and quite a sobering thought as well, if you come to think of it.
If you’re in a BMW 3-Series with a heads-up display, then you’d have had nothing to worry. A readout counting down the distance to that exit would have been right there, in your line-of-sight. Impressed about that vital contribution to road-safety? Well, you’d be pleasantly surprised to know that HUD’s have been standard fitment on fighter jets since the sixties and BMW put them in their cars over a decade ago.
Back then, heads-up display for cars was still at the early stages. So drivers had to make do with monochrome displays. Later came the 128-bit versions and today, car buyers can order the latest full-colour HUD’s in their BMW 3-Series. Pretty awesome, eh? But that’s not enough, the resolution too grew by leaps and bounds, reaching the stage where everything is rendered pixel correct in full creative glory.
But whether it is the BMW 3-Series with a heads-up display you’re talking about or a car from any other manufacturer, there’s no quieting down the dissidents. The latter have voiced concerns over the years on HUD’s being more of a distraction to drivers, than adding any great value. A novelty if you please, something that automakers are tacking on just to offer buyers another gizmo to brag about. Not to mention the handsome profits they make on them.
Ask the original users of the feature – the aircraft pilots and they’ll tell you just how much of a life-saver they are. Ultimately, it all depends on which side of the fence you’re looking from. The evolved buyers of today are aware that it isn’t just a fancy piece of kit, but a fountain of information that’s fed to them in manageable, actionable chunks in the most non-intrusive way possible. BMW 3-Series owners appreciate the multiple inputs that come their way via their HUD’s. From navigation hints, to engine parameters, speed readouts and a lot more. Their world is better thanks to that additional display which their car manufacturer offered.
