A different world

Technology: Virtual reality in the car - A different world

For many drivers, the arrows, lines and traffic signs coming at them from the various displays are still quite disconcerting. With its current ID family, Volkswagen was probably a little premature in opting for an emphatically small instrument unit and wanted to bring the most important information into the driver's field of vision via a head-up display. Audi and Skoda had to follow suit with their MEB models. But that's not all, because the projections in the windshield can be expanded to include virtual reality on request. This means that the interaction between eyes, projection and surroundings gives the driver the feeling of being right in the middle of the action. Instead of a dull arrow on the navigation screen or in the instrument cluster indicating that the next road to the right is 200 meters away, the arrow visually guides the driver and car into the road. The driver no longer has to look at the displays behind the steering wheel and in the middle of the dashboard, but is guided as if by magic.

Sounds simple, but in reality it is hardly any more complicated - if you get involved. This is because many users have been used to the normal arrow displays for years and decades, so their own eyes are sometimes reluctant to leave the familiar formats. It is annoying when the cockpit displays are too small, as in the Audi Q4 Etron, VW ID4 or the newly revised Skoda Enyaq, because too much information is shown on a display that is far too small.

The technical heart of the augmented reality head-up display is a so-called Picture Generation Unit, which is concealed inside the instrument panel. A bright LCD display sends the beams of light onto two mirrors, with special optics separating the near and far planes. The mirrors direct the beams onto a concave mirror with electrical adjustment. From there, the information reaches the windshield and the driver's field of vision. The so-called AR Creator serves as the image generator, which adjusts the placement of the symbols to suit the surroundings. The necessary framework data for the overall technical structure is provided by the front camera, radar sensors and navigation map.

Large displays in the living room or at the desk at home have conditioned users over the years - the bigger the better. No wonder that modern displays are now between 13 and 17 inches in size or, in luxury models such as a Cadillac Escalade, are interwoven to a total size of more than 30 inches. Not only the new vehicles from China and Asia in particular show where the journey is heading, but also a future study such as the Mercedes EQXX, whose large display extends from the left A-pillar to the right and can be loaded with almost any type of content. The MBUX Virtual Assistant, which the Stuttgart-based company will present at the CES in Las Vegas at the beginning of 2024, provides a concrete preview. The displays themselves provide an AI-supported preview of the control unit of the new electric series, which will replace the A-Class family from the end of 2024 - purely electrically.

BMW is also preparing for new display technology in its new 3 Series and the "new class" product family that will follow in 2025. For the first time, there will be a head-up display that not only shows the driver, but also the entire width of the windscreen, initially at a height of around 15 centimetres. "This is more than just a vision. We are bringing this innovation into the new class. Our customers will be able to experience this completely new technology in their vehicles as early as 2025," explains BMW CEO Oliver Zipse. The individual functions are operated by voice, steering wheel and touch function on displays. It can be assumed that even textile surfaces in the doors could soon play a role in the operation of comfort functions. In this technology center at Mountainview in California's Silicon Valley, the ideas go a few years further. While gesture control is unlikely to catch on, work is being carried out here on three-dimensional digital displays that make it particularly easy for drivers to find their way around even without eye contact.

But virtual reality is not just about the driver and their co-pilot. What is not possible in the front row of a vehicle leaves possibilities for the rear. Audi, for example, has been offering a rear-seat entertainment system with VR goggles in the second row of many models for some time now. The virtual reality glasses allow you to immerse yourself in various media formats such as games or films. In contrast to other rear-seat entertainment systems, which are played via screen systems, the various content adapts to the car's movements in real time. To use the Holoride system, a suitable headset must be paired with the vehicle via Bluetooth. BMW entertains its rear passengers in the 5 and 7 Series without VR glasses, instead using a large screen that folds down from the roof.

Behind Audi's Holoride system is a technology that adapts virtual content to the vehicle's movements in real time: If the car drives through a right-hand bend, for example, the spaceship in the imaginary world also flies to the right. If the car accelerates, the spaceship also accelerates. The development of this innovative VR or XR technology (XR: Extended Reality) was developed by Audi and the tech start-up Holoride and is now going into mass production. The entertainment program of the future is available in almost the entire Ingolstadt model range in the main markets of Europe, North America, Japan and China thanks to the latest expansion stage of the modular infotainment matrix.