At least, supplier Delphi and a New Zealand company are willing to try it out. Next month at the CES expo in Las Vegas, they will debut a Ford Mustang GT concept that uses 3D graphics on its dashboard screen.
We’ve seen full-digital displays become increasingly common on modern cars; the latest Audi TT’s Virtual Cockpit in particular stands out as a hugely impressive effort. But Delphi and 3D graphics software company PureDepth are trying to take it to the next level, with “multi-layered graphics” in the instrument cluster. So reports The Detroit Free Press:
Yes, the “gee-whiz” appeal is a large part of the marketing case, but so are comfort and safety. “Normally traditional instrument displays present different images to the left and right eyes,” said Darryl Singh, PureDepth CEO. “On longer trips drivers can experience headaches, eye strain and sometimes even nausea.”
Delphi approached PureDepth about bringing the multi-layer display (MLD) system inside a vehicle.
“Video games, arcades, the gaming industry and even Hollywood is where the pioneers in graphics go to show their stuff,” said Glen DeVos, Delphi vice president of advanced engineering. “We wanted some of that multidimensional look in a car.”
The companies swear the dashboard is like HDTV; once you try it, you won’t want to go back.
At this time it’s unclear exactly what the display will look like beyond the image you see above, and while a Mustang will showcase the tech, Ford has not yet committed to it for a production car, the Freep reports.
I’m curious enough to try it out.
Contact the author at patrick@jalopnik.com.