Driving can be more fun and safer when you can get a 360° view outside the car. Jaguar Land Rover happens to be working on such a system. Its 360 Virtual Urban Windscreen system relies on transparent roof pillars to make that happen. The surface of each pillar will be embedded with a screen to take live video feed from cameras covering the angles outside the car, which are usually obscured thanks to the A, B, and C pillars. This means drivers will be able to see pedestrians and everything else on the road.
The system would rely on a Heads-Up Display system to highlight the movement of other folks on the road to the driver with a halo moving across the virtual windscreen. The system can automatically make the left or right-hand side pillars transparent when needed.
By connecting the Virtual Urban Windscreen to the cloud, drivers will be able to get even more out of their connected car. Such a connect car can provide all kinds of useful information on the road (gas prices, GPS directions, …). With “Follow-Me Ghost Car Navigation” technology, drivers will have an easier time following directions to get to their destination faster. The idea certainly has a lot of potential.
