Navdy : Google Glass For Your Car

While popular connect car systems like Google’s Android Auto or Apple’s CarPlay aim to be an extension of your smartphone’s display on your car’s dashboard, Navdy is taking a cooler approach, that is much more like Google Glass.

The upcoming Navdy HUD aims for more flexibility and a slick set of interaction modes combined with a full-featured, correctly distanced projection setup that makes it appear as though the display (driven by your iPhone or Android phone) is floating two meters away over the road ahead. Navdy can draw power and data from your car’s diagnostic (OBD-II) port, which lets Navdy display speed and distance-to-empty while opening up the possibility of future features to analyze and manage driving and performance data.

Driving with Navdy is a lot like using Google Glass, only in your car’s windshield. Similar to a heads-up display, the device projects a transparent display on your windshield to show maps, notifications and music apps. The display is designed so the content is focused out six feet in front of you so drivers can easily view the display.

Navdy’s head-up display, meaning that its hands-free and lets you keep your eyes on the road without having to look away. A basic tiny projector set up in front of a reflective glass. It projects images six feet in front of the windshield for a natural feel.

It lets drivers interact with their smartphone notifications and apps, including text messages, phone calls, and navigation, through simple gestures. It’s easily hooked up to the car’s computer and mounted on top of the driver’s dashboard so that it sits in the driver’s line of vision. The company describes its product as “Google Glass for your car, but without the glasses.”

Both the discount and full-price Navdy may seem little out of budget; especially when you are spending $300 into a device that you haven’t seen in action. But if the Navdy team can deliver on all the functionality they plan to package into the unit, it will be worth the cost.