Let me just clarify: Go look at your own Prius, from the front over the driver's side, through the windshield. You'll see the same rectangular cutout. It's way too low and too close to the front of the car for it to be a head-up display cutout. It's the exact same display cutout we already have in our cars. You just never noticed it before now Though our cutouts are lower, putting a cutout there for HUD doesn't make sense; the angle of incidence for projection would place the projector itself pretty far down into the firewall. ~ dan ~
Hmm.. I checked my 2007 Prius and I don't see a cutout like that on mine. I do see cutouts for the windshield defogging vents though, but those don't look like the cutout on the spy photo
After thinking about it for a day in my mind it is 1 of 2 things... 1. It could be an HUD that actually projects onto the windshield. What it will in fact project who knows... 2. It could be an 'HUD' like we have now that reflects onto a mirror BUT: This is its own little 'mini hud mirror reflector thingy' that will do simple speed and maybe fuel gauge. Then there will be the center mounted cutout we can see in all the photos that contains the blue circles that correspond to the controls on the steering wheel etc. And then their is the navi screen (if you opt for the navi option). I'm guessin maye that will do only navi. Why only navi? I'm going to guess that the 'mini hud' is jsut speed mounted right in front of the diver high on the dash. Then you have the big navi screen for just navi. Then there is a small scree wa down on the new center console, that will be for temperature control, fan speed etc. And finally the color screen in the center HUD is the one that team prius showed that says welcome to prius, and it will change depending on stuf your doing or a select button you press. It will display driving mode info, the screen of the buttons on the wheel, etc stuff like that. Well, these are just guesses but anyone else have any other ideas? Anyone else see either of these as possibilities?
We got some info on equipment on new RX, and it seems it is going to get heads up display optional, so it confirms that Toyota/Lexus is moving ahead with hud's on their latest vehicles...
Great news, thanks for posting it here spwolf. I hope the Toyota one is a new kind that may have color and such whe it is displaye don the windshield, all the ones I have seen from years ago (early 2000's) were your generic greenish/blue color. The 2010 should be interesting option/technology wise!
what other color can it be than green? thats the most visible one, i dont see anything else that can be seen in different lighting conditions...
There are so many things that people do and so many options that can lead to slower reaction times but people still do them and car companies still put new stuff in their vehicles. I welcome an HUD as something new and different in a Prius.
people want screen high up which is really pretty huge distraction, but they dont want HUD . I am pretty sure a lot of thought went into where to position both MFD and HUD... so lets wait and see what happens. From my perspective, I want them to cram every possible tech option into the Prius - it is tech car, it deserves it .
The issue with the HUD is worse than other distractions. The issue is you look THROUGH the HUD to see the road ahead and your eyes automatically focus on the HUD display when you think you're watching the road. Its a very dangerous peice of equipment. Tech goodies are fine...but things that create danger for others when they're on the road I'm against.
Yeah but if the HUD is at the base of the windshield (e.g. slightly higher than where the speedo is today), that wouldn't be much of a distraction would it?
I don't know...the issue is the HUD being directly in your field of vision, where you have to look through it to see the road.
That's just it, you are 'looking thru it' to see the road. When not focused on it it really isn't something that makes a difference. And when you do focus on it to see your speed it isn't any different than focusing somewhere else in the car, if anything your eyes are traveling less to refocus see the speed on the windshield and then refocus back to the road. Really, it isn't that big a deal...
Depending on which sources you trust, HUD's delay driver response, or speed it up. Here's one that finds a speedup: Ergonomics and Safety of Intelligent ... - Google Book Search I personally believe that a synthetic vision enhancement, mainly through use of infrared cam overlay onto a HUD would be tremendously valuable. But then again I live where there be kangoroos hopping into the road every time all the time at an average cost of $5k repair cost... Hell, I want an autopilot!