Microsoft has taken out a Patent for a new display mechanism for Sat Nav systems that will use a Head Up Display to project an image of a "ghost" car that you follow to your destination - it will follow the route in front of you and use indicators and brakes as warnings of direction changes.
Many reference on the web, e.g. New Scientist snippet:
http://www.newscientist.com/article.ns?id=dn7857&feedId=online-news_rss20
New Scientist wrote:
Phantom car
Using in-car satellite navigation on unfamiliar roads, in bad weather or in heavy traffic can be a bore. But soon it could be as simple as following the car ahead, if a patent filed recently by Microsoft takes off.
Instead of studying an on-screen map or listening to spoken instructions, the system lets a driver pursue a cartoon car projected onto the windscreen in front of them. The navigation system checks a car’s location and calculates a route in the usual way, but the driver follows the ghost car as if it were the leader of a convoy.
The on-screen car could also convey traffic and weather information by changing colour or size. And its ghostly cartoon character should make it sufficiently distinguishable from real cars and traffic as seen through the windscreen, the patent says.
And the Patent Application itself:
Patent Application
I know the HUD is standard in military aircraft, and that there are several variations being demoed or even as options in some cars such as speedo reading or the infra-red night time viewing (where the image from an I/R camera is overlayed to give a better night time view), but a car isn't an aircraft and motorists need to see potential hazards. I cannot help but imagine that drivers might get so distracted by the phantom car driving through bollards, other cars, pedestrians, along the pavement etc, that it will cause numerous accidents.
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