TOKYO —
In May, Pioneer announced the newest model of Carrozzeria Cyber-Navi. This breakthrough device, which is set to hit stores soon, has been getting a lot of buzz for moving car navigation from the dashboard to about three meters in front of your car.
I was able to get an sneak peak test drive in a car equipped with a Cyber-Navi, and it was a surprisingly comfortable ride with clear visibility.
The most popular place to install navigation devices today is the center of the dashboard. It’s pretty easy to get all your information from that position, but it also involves you lowering your eyes. Clearly this is bad as it takes your eyes off the road, which at high speed can be dangerous even for a moment. On top of that, your eyes have to constantly refocus as they move from the screen to the road ahead of you. Altogether, this handicaps your visibility considerably.
Cyber-Navi’s Augmented Reality Heads Up Display (AR HUD) unit is mounted in front of the car’s windshield which means you can keep your eyes at the same level and still get all the info you need. Also, because the information is projected three meters ahead of your car, you don’t even have to adjust your focus to read it. You can still make sure your route is correct while keeping your eyes on the traffic ahead of you.
I took Cyber-Navi out on both a city street and an express way to get a sense of both and each of them turned out to be really comfortable. Although there was a lot of information coming at me, my vision wasn’t hindered at all. Before trying it out I was sure this thing would get in my way while driving, but once I got moving with it, there were no problems whatsoever.
A big highlight of Cyber-Navi is the “AR Scout Mode” which instantly delivers the distance of the car in front of you, the recommended lane for you, street signs, traffic lights, and more. It also notifies you of a typical driver’s most needed pit stops like convenience stores and gas stations.
If you have a road trip planned for this summer, I highly recommend Cyber-Navi. It will make your trip more pleasant than any you have had before.
RocketNews24
4 Comments
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suzukakid at Aug. 06, 2012 - 02:11AM JST
How much is it?
Wakarimasen at Aug. 06, 2012 - 12:59PM JST
It is mounted outside the car? Sounds pretty awful if you drive something good looking.
jonobugs at Aug. 07, 2012 - 02:38AM JST
It's mounted on the inside of the car, but projects an image that appears to be out in front of the car. Check out the video link. I followed the link to the home page and to a PDF file that listed all the prices, but it was a bit confusing for me. The actual unit appears to cost around 105,000 but I believe there is a lot of extras you need to purchase in order for it to work properly and the final STARTing cost is around 300,000 yen. It's not clear whether that includes installation or not. There are seems to be extras you can get to enhance the system, such as a front mounted camera. I'm sure the costs add up quickly.
Harry_Gatto at Aug. 08, 2012 - 10:02AM JST
You call this very brief summary a "test drive"? Even the external link doesn't say much.