Jaguar's vanishing act and ghost car

There seem to be some brilliant minds at work at Jaguar Land Rover’s technology development team. Recently JLR showcased its transparent bonnet in the Discovery Vision Concept and the smart navigation system in Range Rover Sport but if you thought a transparent bonnet is interesting, how about a floating roof or ‘transparent’ pillars as JLR calls it.

Yes JLR is playing a vanishing act here to eliminate blind spots entirely when you drive. The company revealed this new piece of tech in a XJ sedan called the 360 Virtual Urban Windscreen system. It uses a combination of cameras and display screens embedded in the A-,B- and C-pillars to make them visually disappear every time you look at them. Instead of being blind spots, the reason for most dents and scratches around a car and sometimes accidents too, the pillars display what’s going on behind them when the driver looks at them. 

The next piece of interesting tech that is cleverly inspired and evolved from video games is the ‘Follow-me’ Ghost car navigation system. A ghost car is projected on the windscreen that the driver can follow instead of listening to turn-by-turn directions and getting your eyes off the road to the navigation screen. It’s similar to a virtual windscreen concept JLR showcased on the F-type for track use earlier this year but for road use.

JLR is on a technology surge to keep pace with and even outsmart its German rivals at their own game. Lesser distraction makes for a more involving drive and that is the end goal all manufacturers should be chasing.