Who hasn’t pounded, even stamped, for the good reason that they were looking at the indications on their phone rather than keeping their eyes on the road? “The smartphone has become the n ° 1 enemy of mobility, it is involved in many accidents”, assures Romain Duflot, the founder of the start-up EyeLight. The Toulousain is rather sharp on safety. A lot of bikers already owe their team to ride with their heads held high thanks to EyeRide technology. It allows them to project the data from their GPS directly into their helmet, at pupil height. Since Christmas 2020, orders have been “regular” and the start-up’s first invention has even become “profitable”.
This is why EyeLight is switching to four-wheel models and unveiling on the occasion of this THOSEhis car windshield “transformed into a virtual screen” thanks to augmented reality. “The driver sees the data displayed directly 50 meters in front of him with a display quality never equaled as on a screen 14 meters diagonally”, details Romain Duflot.
Already industrialized for production cars
So of course, since the goal is for the driver to “stay focused on the road”, it is not a question of saturating him with data by lining his windshield. Information is projected “sparingly”. Ideally, the speed, the way forward or the fork to anticipate. But now that most cars are fitted with cameras, the system can also occasionally display alerts. “A safety distance not respected, a pedestrian emerging”, for example.
The people of Toulouse do not come to Las Vegas with a concept, an idea being developed in a laboratory. They arrive in Mercedes (class B) already equipped with the famous windshield, with quite a few running-in kilometers on the odometer. And especially in tandem. The technology was developed with AGC, the global windshield giant, and its process of industrialization on production cars already exists. The team must announce this Wednesday a first partnership with the French manufacturer Renault then the Mercedes will go on an American tour after CES to park, and convince, in front of General Motors or other flagship brands.
And if ever your next motorized acquisition is equipped with augmented reality, know that it works even when you wear sunglasses. Aesthetes will also remember that without a built-in screen, the dashboard regains a certain elegance.