Science & technology | Road safety

Augmented reality offers a safer driving experience

Complete with holograms on the windscreen

Heads up display on windscreen showing water ahead.
A streamlined displayPhotograph: Envisics
|Milton Keynes

While waiting for the traffic lights to change, your correspondent notices a pair of red warning squares appear on the windscreen. They follow a couple of pedestrians as they cross the road directly ahead. Another warning, this time farther in the distance, highlights a third person, harder to spot, stepping out from behind a line of waiting cars. On the move again, a road to the right is illuminated in blue to indicate the turn suggested by the satnav. A local landmark also gets a name tag attached as it passes by.

This article appeared in the Science & technology section of the print edition under the headline “My other car is a hologram”

From the July 27th 2024 edition

Discover stories from this section and more in the list of contents

Explore the edition

Discover more

Dr Dorothy Bishop.

Elon Musk is causing problems for the Royal Society

His continued membership has led to a high-profile resignation

Legal Amazon preservation area borders the field for soybean planting.

Deforestation is costing Brazilian farmers millions

Without trees to circulate moisture, the land is getting hotter and drier


Robot mixing at Toyota Research Institute.

Robots can learn new actions faster thanks to AI techniques

They could soon show their moves in settings from car factories to care homes


Scientists are learning why ultra-processed foods are bad for you

A mystery is finally being solved

Scientific publishers are producing more papers than ever

Concerns about some of their business models are building

The two types of human laugh

One is caused by tickling; the other by everything else