A HEADS-UP ON HOW TO MAKE A CAR'S TOUCHSCREEN WORKABLE

UNDER THE SKIN

- JESSE CROSSE

NO MATTER HOW hard it tries, the car industry struggles with finding a perfect or sometimes even a half-decent answer to the interaction between driver and car. The move towards touchscreens to reduce the complexity of myriad buttons as cars grew more complicated proved to be something of an own goal. Arguably, touchscreens cause as much distraction in a car as they were designed to avoid, but could they be improved by using head-up displays (HUDs)? 

Although plenty of premium cars have them, they're still more of a gimmick, rather than a vital feature that arguably should be standard equipment, but what if some aspects of HUDS and touchscreens could overlap more? HUDS in cars have been around for three decades but few have progressed beyond the absolute basics of projecting speed and simple navigation.