Apple: Your Windshield Could Be a Screen

The company that makes your phone thinks you could spend more time staring at a screen.

Apple has applied for a patent for a device that would turn a car’s entire windshield and windows into transparent screens, allowing automakers to project augmented reality information directly into a driver’s line of sight. The system would work “on one or more transparent surfaces of the vehicle,” the patent application says. So, it could potentially turn every window in your car into an augmented reality interface.

Apple speculates that it could be used to display speed, turn-by-turn directions, and could highlight “environmental objects which are obscured from direct perception.”

It’s easy to see how that could become a safety feature. It could help to identify cars or pedestrians that sensors detect even when traffic visually blocks them from view.

But Apple’s application also says the screen could “obscure or replace content displayed on” objects in the environment. So it could make everything an advertisement.

It’s not the first time we’ve seen this idea. BMW earlier this year unveiled its clever i Vision Dee concept – a design study showing a possible future direction for BMW cars. It can display one augmented reality surface on the glass visible to those inside the car and another to those outside. That is, you could see turn-by-turn directions inside the car while those outside the car see your avatar driving the car. Dee also talks.

We should also caution that companies routinely patent ideas they never use. Tesla holds a patent for a laser windshield cleaning system. Toyota holds a patent for an in-car fragrance system that can also dispense tear gas for self-defense. Ford recently applied to patent a self-driving, self-repossessing car that drives itself back to the dealership if you miss a payment.

An idea doesn’t have to be good to earn a patent. It just has to be novel.

Apple’s idea, however, is a natural evolution of the head-up displays common to luxury cars today. And the company has succeeded in developing in-car infotainment systems before. Its CarPlay phone projection system is now found on the majority of new cars and is set to gain control of more car features in future generations.

But we can’t help but wonder if there’s a backlash coming to the trend of ever-increasing screen real estate in cars. Last year, one major industry supplier tried to tempt automakers with a disappearing screen technology for dashboards.

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