Turn Your Smartphone into a Car's Heads-up Display

That's just one more accident waiting to happen.

There are already too many distractions for most drivers, especially the young ones, under 30.

A HUD in an aircraft makes a little more sense, since pilots are more well trained and disciplined.

So you are saying it is better to totally look away from the wind shield for a second or so to check your speedometer, or your fuel gauge, then to have it projected in front of you? At least when it appears to be in front of your windshield, your eyes are still pointed towards the road ahead. Sudden motion or lights will probably distract you from reading your gauges.You should try to read the speedometer in my wife's Scion. The gauge pod is centered in the dash, as though they expect someone to remove the dual seats someday, and install a single centered seat. Certainly is satisfying from a symmetrical point of view, but safety wise..... Makes it very convenient for back seat drivers to read the speed you are going. Definitely a heads up display would be better than that.

My Mazda 3 has a small hud display for speed that pops-up when I start the engine. It's a piece of curved, clear tinted plastic maybe 3" x 3", and sits on the top of the dash a few inches on my side of the windshield. The curve causes the numbers to appear 'in focus' about 20 feet away. I can adjust where on the piece of plastic the mph (or kph) shows up. I have it set low, so I simultaneously see the number and the leading edge of the hood when I glance at it.

It's not at all distracting, since it's not visually 'in the roadway'. It helps me maintain a steady speed when I don't want to use the cruise control.

The only other thing I wish it had was targeting info, so I could vaporize anyone in front of me who is texting while driving. I'd be willing to pay the cost for the laser accessory whenever Mazda makes it available.

Twin .50's would be a lot more fun.

And a 2.5" rocket pod for the larger targets.

In that case, you might like this: http://www.sjgames.com/car-wars/

I've always found it a fun distraction.

The Sygic satnav I have on my phone alongside a Copilot system has had a HUD option for 2 or 3 years.

The OBDII app I have on my phart smone has a "toggle HUD mode" setting.

It may have some use at night, but none in daylight.

I just took this photo of a reflection of a display inside my truck. Double images!

This IS NOT A GOOD IDEA! It results in a double image on the windshield that is hard to read and very distracting.

A wreck in the making.

It's not a problem with the HUD in my satnav. When in HUD mode the display is reduced to very basic information i.e. a big turn arrow & countdown in large figures, no fine detail & you still get the voice information. Having said that, I tried the HUD but don't use it, I prefer the conventional set-up.

I don't really see the need for a HUD unless I'm targeting enemy aircraft....

I can tell how fast I'm going by how fast I'm passing other cars...

If it stops a cager texting then it might be a very good idea, otherwise no I can't see it being a good idea.

I bet someone would find a way of projecting their text message onto the windscreen.