Tag Archive: HUDs

An article by Joel Feldman, the founder of End Distracted Driving points out the possible dangers of heads up displays that are being developed for automobiles. Heads up displays are supposed to offer the promise of less driver distraction because the driver can view dashboard information without taking his or her eyes off the road ahead. However, rather than making the driving environment safer, some safety experts fear that heads up displays will, instead, just add to the mass of distractions facing drivers today.

Heads up display technology or HUDs as they are commonly known, have been in the aviation industry for decades. Military aircraft commonly use HUDs as an aid in dogfights and on bombing runs. Where HUDs in military aircraft differ from the civilian use of HUDs in cars is that the military HUD is often helping the pilot to focus on and aim at a target that may not be in view of the pilot; military pilots don’t focus on the HUD at all times.

There’s an old saying in military aviation that to be safe, a pilot must first aviate, navigate, and then communicate. Basically, what that means is that the pilot has to concentrate first and foremost on flying the aircraft. All of the navigation and communication input can be distracting and make the pilot lose focus on the job of flying the aircraft.

The same is true for cars. While the HUD is supposed to allow the driver to keep his or her eyes on the road, all of the information beamed on the windshield can actually work to make the driver lose focus on the road ahead. The driver must first drive the car and that means looking at much more than just the road directly ahead.

Hazards can come at a driver from all directions and the driver must be constantly on the lookout for those hazards. Information such as incoming call or email notices, road directions, and a number of other bits of info that could be projected can act to distract the driver’s vision from further down the road or from the sides and rear of the car where hazards could be approaching.

Safety experts say that, despite the claims of the HUD manufacturers that the technology will make the driving environment safer, there are no studies to back up those claims. Until those studies are done, vehicle manufacturers should put the brakes on the introduction of heads up displays.

Read more: Heads-Up Displays are Not an Answer to Driver Distraction

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