The Safety Dilemma for Automotive HUDs

To paraphrase the irascible Dr. Ian Malcolm from Jurassic Park, we’ve been so preoccupied with whether we could add HUDs (heads-up displays) that we never stopped to think if we should.

If you’ve been to CES in the past five years, you can’t possibly miss them – they’re quite literally in your face. HUDs promise to redefine automotive safety, funneling a host of distractions – text messages, GPS, social media, and more – into your line of sight, thereby (in theory) reducing distracted driving. They do so by projecting an assortment of critical stats onto your windshield, keeping your eyes locked on the road.

Until now, the tech was largely confined to fighter jets (like the F-35’s obscenely expensive Helmet Mounted Display Systems), but it’s trickled into consumer electronics.

A number of Audi, GM, and Mercedes Benz models offer optional HUD systems, but they’re far from ubiquitous (thus far). Yet by 2024, the heads-up display market could reach $2.8 billion, and legislation could potentially mandate it (like the fiat on back-up cameras) or bury it over the same safety concerns used to promote it.

So which is it? A valuable safety feature or ironic distraction?

The casus belli for HUD goes something like this – drivers will invariably engage in risky activities, so anything that keeps your eyes on the road is a net positive. But is this ostensive safety apparatus itself a distraction?

“The technology is driven by a false assumption that seeing requires nothing more than having the eyes fixed on the right spot,” said Paul Atchley, a psychologist at the University of Kansas.

“Drivers need to divide their attention to deal with this added visual information,” said University of Toronto Department of Psychology professor Ian Spence. “Not only will drivers have to concentrate on what’s happening on the road around them as they’ve always done, they’ll also have to attend to whatever warning pops up on the windshield in front of them.”

Critics lob similar logic at handsfree headsets – anything that diverts your attention, even if the eyes are facing forward, makes driving less safe. Theoretically, a moratorium on all phone calls, texting, social media, or GPS from the drivers’ seat is the safest option. But is that feasible?

“To completely eliminate it is a pipe dream,” said Nagraj Kashyap, senior vice president for ventures and innovation at Qualcomm, of motorist multitasking. “The best way to handle it is to make it as safe as you can.”

In other words, we’re past the point of no return – we can only alleviate smartphone distractions, not eliminate them. And does HUD provide a net reduction in distracted driving?

We certainly shouldn’t hamstring innovation. But we do need to ensure that a promising new technology doesn’t make a bad situation worse.

PSD

www.powersystemsdesign.com