Hyundai Mobis Shows Holo-Windshield at CES, Wants to Scan Your Brain

One can always count on CES as a venue in which an automaker will trot out futuristic displays right out of a Jetsons episode. This week, Hyundai Mobis, which is the company’s software arm, is showing off a windshield which can display holographic information and even serve as a projection space for some virtual features.

Before describing some of the minutiae, we will take a moment to point out the head of Hyundai design recently went on record with an European  outlet about the subject of physical buttons, saying “Having HVAC controls [on the touchscreen] doesn’t really make sense. It’s perfectly fine when the car is stationary, but when it’s driving you should be able to grab it without noticing it.” It would seem a holographic windshield may be at odds with such values.

Nevertheless, the group at Hyundai Mobis says the will have a sample of its Holographic Windshield Display at CES. Said to use a dose of augmented reality, the display projects critical driving details such as navigation, infotainment, and safety alerts across the entire width of the front windshield. This would result in a panoramic vista that spans from driver seat to passenger seat.

While the description might be a tad like the one used to talk about what BMW will have on tap for its Neue Klasse models, it doesn’t seem Hyundai Mobis is planning to project the detail onto a black strip at the base of the windshield like BMW. The illustration above shows an almost see-thru display ahead of driver and passenger, occupying the bottom quarter(ish) of the glass.

Further down the road in some rather ‘out there’ ideas, Hyundai Mobis also says they are working on something called M.Brain which purports to monitor “driver focus in real-time by analyzing brainwave data.” And you thought car companies had too much information on you now. The only example of usage is to jolt drivers awake during moments of fatigue or inattention. A vent window opened to just the right angle did the same job for this author in an old squarebody pickup truck just the other day, no brainwaves required.

[Images: Hyundai Mobis]

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