Jaguar Land Rover Enhances Driving With Ghost Cars, Pillars

Cameron Aubernon
by Cameron Aubernon

Worried about checking those corners with those thick pillars in the way? Always wanted to bring the Forza experience into the real world? Jaguar Land Rover’s got you covered.

Regarding the pillars, JLR unveiled its 360 Virtual Urban Windscreen, which combines a high-end HUD with cameras embedded in the surface of a given vehicle’s A-, B- and C-pillars to help the driver see potential problems that would otherwise be obscured by said vehicle’s blind spots.

How? Upon checking the corners to change direction, a given pillar would go transparent, showing the pillar’s live video feed of what might be hiding. The same effect occurs upon approach toward an intersection, when the system automatically makes either right- or left-side pillars transparent.

The virtual windscreen can also pull information from the cloud — gas prices, restaurant locations, parking spots — helping to keep the driver’s eyes where they’re needed the most: on the road. This is further enhanced with the addition of JLR’s Follow-Me Ghost Car Navigation, which places a ghost car in front of the driver to aid in arriving at a destination with help from the cloud.

Cameron Aubernon
Cameron Aubernon

Seattle-based writer, blogger, and photographer for many a publication. Born in Louisville. Raised in Kansas. Where I lay my head is home.

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  • Frantz Frantz on Dec 16, 2014

    Neat tech, but wasted on anyone who should be driving. But like the backup camera, if it can save 3 lives a year, then they'll make it a law for all cars to have soon enough.

  • 28-Cars-Later 28-Cars-Later on Dec 16, 2014

    "Regarding the pillars, JLR unveiled its 360 Virtual Urban Windscreen, which combines a high-end HUD with cameras embedded in the surface of a given vehicle’s A-, B- and C-pillars to help the driver see potential problems that would otherwise be obscured by said vehicle’s blind spots." so... instead of working to engineer less blind spots, they simply added more in and then compensated with $3/unit Chinese cameras? Winning!

  • Stuki Stuki on Dec 17, 2014

    How come one of the price-little object complexioneering specialists from Germany or somewhere, haven't seen fit to build a car with thin, graceful a-pillars, backed up by thick ones that deploy on an as needed basis, the way their rear convertible rollover hoops do? Just seems like a nobrainer to me. But regardless of implementation, JLR should at least be commended for thinking about meaningful issues, instead of simply being content to cash in on the current rapstar/washed up cougar blingbox fascination with their cars. Lots of people like RRs because of the spectacularly open view from the green house, where other SUVs manage to make you feel like you're sitting in a bathtub barely able to peek over the belt line, despite sitting 6 feet up in the air.

  • Corey Lewis Corey Lewis on Dec 17, 2014

    I wonder if the ghost car has to break down as many times as the Jaguar does! Also, say you decide in the middle of a journey to take an exit and pick up some fuel. For the amount of time it takes the car to realize you're veering off and reroute you, the hologram car is going to do - what? Appear to be driving at an angle through the grass? Snap over onto the road in front of you once the sat nav reroutes, causing your brain to think someone has just cut you off? It's just entirely too complicated to be much use to anybody.

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    • Corey Lewis Corey Lewis on Dec 18, 2014

      @Lorenzo Ha, yep. There's a point where driver assistance and advancement in the name of "safety" become a bigger distraction than the plain old driving. I think both the see-thru gimmick pillars and the ghost vehicle are well past that point.

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