At next week's Shanghai Motor Show, Mini will premiere a new concept. It's not a new car, but a new pair of goggles: eyewear that can project driver information into a driver's field of vision.
It's called ‘Mini Augmented Vision', and is basically a head-up display for your face. Using the help of ‘several' Qualcomm companies, Mini has produced, effectively, the driving version of Google Glass.
So, you strap on the prototype goggles, and before your very eyes is beamed a wealth of helpful info: everything from destination entry for navigation, the first and last mile (from your current walking location to the vehicle, or vehicle to final destination), speed and speed limits, points of interest, parking assistance and more.
Mini stresses that the driver's direct field of vision is never obscured, and other road users are in full view. It's all gone a bit Terminator, hasn't it?
"We have created an interlinked system and augmented reality eyewear with a characteristic Mini design that revolutionise the experience both in and outside the vehicle," says project manager Dr Preißinger, clearly failing to realise the goggles' potential to create bloodthirsty robo-drivers.
We're told we can expect something like this in the near future. We'll endeavour to get our face into a pair in Shanghai, and report on our findings. We'll be back...
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