For almost every in-car technology, a time eventually comes when it loses its luster. There are good reasons why cars no longer come with compact cassette players or throttle body injection, it’s because newer, better tech superseded these innovations. While we’re on this train of thought, it’s probably time we admit that head-up displays have some significant limitations, and that they’re probably at the end of their technological shelf lives.
Now, that’s not to say that something has to work well to be cool. The Aston Martin Lagonda’s digital dashboard was famously unreliable, yet it’s still a cool attention-grabber all these decades later. The Vector W8 was a turn-of-the-’90s supercar with a bench seat and an automatic transmission, and two of them broke when Car And Driver tried conducting a road test, but it’s still one of the coolest cars ever made in America.
Head-up displays are cool, having a little readout projected in front of you like you’re piloting a fighter jet is a concept that excites the little part of us that will always be eleven years old. However, in practice, they’ve never quite lived up to their promises of highly legible information with low distraction.
First, let’s talk a little bit about polarized sunglasses. In decades past, they were useful for sport, but also a conspicuous signal of status that attracted a certain stigma. Now though, seemingly every pair of sunglasses is polarized, from fancy wraparound shades to the $2 knockoff Wayfarers near the tills of your local dollar store, and that gives the HUD a significant hurdle. See, when light hits a reflective surface, at least a portion of it tends to become horizontally polarized. Polarized sunglasses filter out horizontally polarized light, and you can probably see where this is going. Since a HUD is normally just light reflected on a windshield, the content displayed dims significantly when viewed through polarized sunglasses, to the point where the information displayed can be hard to read.
But what about night, when only perhaps Corey Hart would be wearing polarized sunglasses? While it’s easy to read a head-up display in those conditions, experience has taught me that many are a little too easy to read. Given how our pupils widen in low light and constrict when it’s bright out, it shouldn’t be terribly surprising that the brightness of a head up display within your line of vision can affect how well you see in the dark, but it’s often helpful to crank down the brightness so you can see where you’re going. Of course, this can also reduce legibility of the information reflected off the windscreen, and the result is always a compromise.
In the past, when gauges were analog and a clear digital readout was nice to have, we could overlook the limitations of head-up displays, but now we’ve kind of evolved beyond them being hugely helpful. I have a new Lincoln Nautilus parked in my driveway right now, and instead of a head-up display, it features two giant screens under one pane of glass stretching from A-pillar to A-pillar, tucked up right at the base of the windshield. It’s a setup that was easy to make fun of when it launched, but now that I’ve lived with it for a few days, I must concede that it’s better than a HUD.
While I wish for more customization options, everything I need from fuel level to speed to navigation maps to what song’s currently playing is seriously close to my line of vision, and nothing washes out when viewed through sunglasses. The screens also dim appropriately at night without losing sharpness, and they have excellent black levels, so it’s not like you’re trying to see through a grey fog.
Plus, it turns out that claims of HUDs minimizing distraction may be standing on shaky ground. Back in 2004, before in-vehicle screens were anywhere near as good as they are now, a group of researchers in Taiwan studied the efficacy of a HUD versus an LCD screen in the middle of the center stack (a head-down display) in commercial vehicle applications. While the sample size is relatively small, as the resulting paper states, “For commercial goods delivery and navigational tasks, the results showed no significant difference between drivers using HUD and HDD, regardless of display arrangement sequence and driving load conditions.”
In a similar vein, a NHTSA-sponsored Virginia Tech study involving a Buick LaCrosse found that drivers spent less time looking at the HUD rather than the gauge cluster when prompted, but more time looking at the HUD than the gauge cluster when simply driving along. As for reaction rate in a simulated emergency scenario, the rate was identical between the HUD and the cluster, while the reaction time was actually a few tenths of a second longer for drivers looking at the HUD.
The head-up display was awesome when it first came to the automotive kingdom, thanks to Nissan in Japan and General Motors in North America, but we’ve reached the point where other technology that overcomes its downsides isn’t just available, it’s already implemented. I wouldn’t be surprised if we see fewer cars with HUDs in the near future, and while I’ll miss their cool factor, even my pre-algorithm nostalgic self must admit that it’s probably time we move on.
Top graphic image: Audi
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My Blazer EV has HUD, and sometimes it will display a big red rectangle of the collision avoidance but because is so bright and big, it actually blocks my view to see what I am about to “hit”. Another thing, for some reason it doesnt dim automatically at night, very distracting. I fixed this by putting it on the lowest bright setting and positioned on the lower portion of the windshield, thats the best combination.
I love how Google Maps gives me directions there along the speed limit of the road and the cruise control speed, I dont look much at the regular speedometer anymore.
Never driven a car with a HUD. Hell, never driven a car with a new infotainment screen. All my cars at home have analog gauges and regular DIN style radios.
Man, I miss Pontiac.
I mean, I sorta drive one, but still.
I honestly can’t see why the HUD would become less popular now
Our BMW and Nissan both have HUDs and I couldn’t disagree more with this article. I’m not sure I’ll buy another car without a HUD. As for seeing it with shades, I buy non-polarized sunglasses and they work fantastic.
I can’t give up my polarized sunglasses, they’re too useful in fog and rain. But I agree, HUDs are dope.
I don’t need fancy, just gimme my speed and I’m happy.
Strong disagree from this callsign. HUD, done properly, is very useful. The proper sort, which are in focus at infinity, removes the need to constantly refocus your eyes between traffic ahead and the gauges 18 inches from you. Terrific news for eyestrain.
The latest augmented reality kind are great, too, superimposing TURN HERE highlights right over the offramp as it approaches.
And the sunglasses thing? Well, I live in the UK, where the sun shone once when my dad was young, but it hasn’t been seen since.
I’ve had two cars with HUD, including my current. I like it. Being navigation based it’s cool trick is the little speed limit sign with the posted limit displayed next to the digital speedometer. When I see a cop, one very quick glance shows me how fast I’m going and how fast I should be going. It is dimmer with polarized shades but still readable. As others have pointed out, it can be turned off. HUD doesn’t trip my grumpy nerve.
I like my HUD. I would only wish it was more fancy.
Agree with this one. Have had lots of rentals with it HUD, doesn’t excite me much.
Wall-to-wall screens excite me even less though -there is nothing I need to do in a car that the two line display, two knobs, and a row of configurable buttons in my pair of non-iDrive BMWs can’t do just fine. My phone is entirely adequate for navigation. I don’t even use the nav system in my Mercedes. Thankfully that car’s screen can be shut off completely, including the backlight, and it’s small enough to not be that distracting anyway. I actually find browsing music to be better in the BMWs than in the Mercedes, even without the big screen. The control logic is better in the Bimmer.
It’s time to admit that when one size fit all declarations definitely suck.
HUDs have for them being focused at infinity, which an underpillar screen might be able to achieve, if it’s far enough, more power to it, but it can’t be done in a reasonably sized car, or at least – not easily.
Suddenly, we have to bend logic practicality to polarized glasses. Because that’s what matters the most. Tired of preaching.
Can anyone writing articles here (other than Mercedes), EVER, write something like they are not someone coming down a mountain with some carved-on-stone instructions to be followed for the next two thousand years ?
HUDs can be switched off. Know-it-alls not so much.
I’m grabbing my pitchfork and torch for this article.
I love the HUD on my car. While I wish my car had the later model’s color display and more info, but for me the blueish display projected is just enough. After driving that car for more than 10 yers, it’s weird for to drive my wife’s Jetta. Looking down to see the speed? So much effort.
Every time I start up, the Chevy logo spins and greets me, reassuring and reminding me. I wouldn’t have it any other way.
Also, I am nearsighted, so I need glasses. My sunglasses are non-polarized and never knew this was an issue until reading this article.
I’m also nearsighted, but have had polarized prescription sunglasses for decades. They are great for reducing glare off of cars and water and stuff, so there’s no way I’m going back. The downside is that they can make it hard to read screens. I especially have that problem in my 2011 Hyundai Tucson, at certain angles, I can’t read the infotainment screen, the climate control LCD screen, or the LCD info center in the dashboard that shows fuel level, odometer, etc.
I am too cheap to get those fancy lenses, but since I never tried them, I don’t know what I am missing and my ignorance is bliss! Haha
Yeah not a fan. We have an X5 and its basically invisible with sunglasses (I have prescription glasses and I like polarised as I like spending time out on the water, they are really good for looking into the water). But at least its simple, it only shows speed (I turn the speed sign info off) and next track etc if you press the button. I use Apple CarPlay for maps, so it doesn’t show any of that info, so at least its simple. We had a brand new X3 as a loan car for a week and there was waaaay to much information in the HUD. It was kinda unnecessary. I feel like HUDs have just become another feature they cram into cars because its seen as a ‘must have’ feature. I suspect the reality is noone would actually notice if a car doesn’t have one.
I’ve only driven a couple of older cars with them being used and I have no use for it. Seemed like a goofy gimmick.
I think polarized sunglasses are more useful if you’re on the water or somewhere that might have similar levels of consistent, persistent glare than driving. When I was working on towers near the ocean, I was getting these big headaches by the end of each day and thought it might be glare. Bought a pair of polarized sunglasses when that was an expensive option, but it was worth the money as the problem went away. I never got headaches from glare when driving, so I didn’t notice much difference there other than the readability of LCDs at certain angles.
In the PNW, there are often times that the road is wet, but the sun comes out and the glare, driving into the sun, at least to my eyes, can be really bad. More than a few accidents have happened in such a scenario.
My wife’s ’15 X5 had the HUD and with polarized sunglasses, I had to cock my head about 30 degrees for it to be readable. I’m still cognizant enough to read speed limit signs and a regular instrument panel.
I do wonder if military and commercial aircraft with HUDs have the polarization issue. And I am much more comfortable wearing polarized sunglasses than non.
Sounds like people love them HUDs. I’ve never had one, so a few questions…
1) does it detect the speed limit optically from signs (catches those temporary changes but maybe misses some altogether)?
2) if by map/satnav, how long does the manufacturer provide free updates? for that matter, how many years will they provide updates even if you pay? (If the average car on the road is 12 years old, that would suggest the average car’s lifetime is over 20 years.)
Just wondering, since my Garmin provides free “lifetime” updates (for the previous one, “lifetime” turned out to be when the updates got too big for the memory, but you did have the option of dropping map coverage for part of the US to make it fit).
Most ones I’ve seen or been driven in are satnav based.
I can’t speak on long term support, probably 3-7years
Depends on the car. My car has a camera that reads the road signs. But it displays it in both the HUD and the dashboard, so I just turn it off in the HUD because I don’t need the info twice.
Preach!
The HUD on my ’18 Mazda 3 is useful, considering the decade of its tech. It performs a cool flip-up when activated, and delivers essential info and graphics for speed, adaptive cruse control, and lane keeping.
Tesla missed an opportunity here, however. The company and its brilliant engineers who tout advanced technology could have easily developed an amazing HUD to embarrass all HUDs, avoiding one of the criticisms of committing everything to a cost-saving single center display.
Except their center display actually works. Living with a Model Y for a daily has been fairly painless. The speedo is right in my lower right peripheral vision. The HVAC is fairly intuitive once it’s learned. The music selection method is not good but that’s what Bluetooth streaming is for. Or a passenger on long trips.
There may be better ways of doing things. But Tesla managed to pull it off with the 3/Y.
This comment makes me chuckle a little bit. Of the three things you listed, speed being in periphery instead of line of sight *is* the complaint, having to learn an HVAC system *is* the complaint, and you’re agreeing that the music selection isn’t good. I’m not seeing how that adds up to Tesla pulling it off.
Maybe they’ve done an ok job once you’re used to it, but the point is that shoving everything into a center screen isn’t as intuitive or useful as a separate instrument cluster with at least some physical controls.
The new car I just got has a HUD (-like thing)… which I think Mini put in place because of the big dinner plate in the middle that has all the gauges.
And I honestly never use it. Maybe the central screen in the Tesla I no longer have trained me to be ok with a speedo that’s in the middle. I find that the main screen in the car is easier to see in all conditions than the HUD…even though it’s in a spot that most people don’t like.
I will always take time to appreciate the proper use of head-up rather than heads-up, which only applies to incoming projectiles or conjoined twins.
I feel we next need a companion piece, a discussion of the top center mounted master gauge pod.
They’ve always seemed a little wrong and pointless to me, but I’m willing to be convinced otherwise.
My ’23 Integra has a HUD, and while it’s certainly not a dealbreaker to have it (I didn’t even know until the test drive), I like it a lot. I particularly like that it’s focused down at the end of my hood, so it’s legible in my periphery, without ever moving my eyeballs from the road, or even making them refocus. I wish my tachometer were up there too, honestly.
Yes, it’s dimmer with polarized sunglasses, but still perfectly usable. I’ve never felt like it was bright or distracting at night either. It’s pretty smartly implemented all around.
I’ve always hated them. Since I can’t wear contacts, I have prescription poloraized sunglasses (for like 20 years) so during a sunny day, no issue. Can’t see them. Otherwise, they have always been an unwelcome disraction at night or when its stormy and very dark and I wear regular glasses. When they are able to be turned off in a vehicle, I turn them off. If not, I have taken to placing or taping the black microfiber cloths I use to clean my glasses over the projection area.
The manufacturers who make it less obvious or impossible to turn them off are actually making it more difficult to focus on driving.
After owning a Kia Cadenza with HUD, it’s something I can’t live without. When I bought my CX-5 I made sure it had a HUD.
As someone with severe ADHD it really helps not having to look down at the instrument cluster every few seconds (in the city at least) to check out my speed. It doesn’t show much info. Just the speed I’m going, speed limit, any road signs coming up, the lane keep assist/adaptive cruise control status, and the blind spot monitoring status (so if someone is in my blind spot it lights up on the left or right). It sets the right brightness when the headlights come on, and it isn’t really distracting.
If they get rid of HUDs something better would need to replace them, and a giant-ass LCD that spans the width of the interior is not better.
I’ve been in a car with HUD once.
It was 1992, and my uncle had just picked up a sweet ’88 Pontiac 6000LE (gooley for Canadians), for like $1500.
It had many cool features like a digital dash, power suede seats, etc.
We were headed to the states and about half a day into the drive, my uncle showed us how he could toggle the speedo from km/h to mph. Then he turned on the HUD, which was pretty darn cool. He turned it off after we stopped, and probably never used it again.
I figured such a novel idea would soon be the norm at least for high end cars, but it looks like the idea was abandoned until more recent times, as now luxury manufacturers are scrambling to add features to differentiate their vehicles from lower priced options.
I still think HUDs are cool, but like cylinder deactivation, it’s an idea from the 80s that was abandoned and then revived when they needed an easy solution.
Digital dash and suede seats meant it was probably a 6000STE, the hotted up version that was actually a pretty damned cool car for GM of the ’80s. My old man nearly bought one, but the dealership was a bag of dicks. He bought the hated Olsmobarge 98 instead. Sooo close to having a cool car back then… The old man was oddly a sucker for technology – far more than I am, relatively speaking.
We called them Goolies in Maine too back in the day.
My mother used to have an X5 with HUD. I don’t know if it came that way or if it’s just how she configured it, but it only showed your speed and the speed limit of the road you were on. It was small and unobtrusive and I liked it. When I could see it that is, because like all the rest, prescription sunglasses are polarized.
I specifically got my prescription sunglasses NOT polarized, because the digital readouts in my BMWs are blank with polarized sunglasses on. Having to tilt your head to find the song or radio station you want gets old fast.
I love the HUD in my CX-30. Has all the info I need, it’s not distracting, and its auto-dimming logic is pretty good. The only thing it’s missing is carplay GPS instructions (which apparently later years eventually got).
My ’24 Golf R is the first car I have with a HUD. I love it. Day or night it is neither too bright nor too dim. I can display my current speed and speed limit, driving directions and other information. What I love is that I can see the information I want without the need to take my eyes off the road and re-focus on the display on the dashboard in front of the steering wheel or worse, the stupid big iPad someone thought needed to be above the center of the dash. Please leave my HUD alone, thank you.