These blue arrows don’t belong on the road.
The teaser campaign continues for the next Mercedes-Benz S-Class. This isn’t much more than a teaser, since we’ve already viewed this technology. This clip is about the very awesome AR-HUD (augmented reality head-up display) that the new luxury flagship will have. However, previous previews were part of larger teaser videos, and this one was all about the AR system. It’s also creepy cool.
What’s creepy cool? It’s a projection of a computer-generated image that projects an arrow onto your windshield. The arrow flies across your windshield while you navigate around a circle. As you turn, it’s red lines that mark the corner. You’ll see strange glowing lights under the cars you are following. It’s actually floating checkered flags that hover at the places you have marked as destinations. This video shows all the functions of the Merc’s AR-HUD.
It is important to clarify that this creepy effect is only temporary. It is a futuristic experience to see animated animations on the windscreen. This is similar to the experience we had when we used augmented reality on phones for the first round of Pokémon Go. This will fade just as the novelty of seeing imaginary creatures running around streets in cities has passed. The cool factor will be gone, but we cannot deny that it is cool to have specific intersections and directions highlighted in such a way.
This is just one component of the technological tour-de-force for the next-generation S-Class. There will be five screens in the interior, with the center 12.8-inch infotainment display being the centerpiece. A fully digital instrument cluster is available for the driver. Passenger screens can be used to share information from the main screen.
The new Mercedes-Benz is coming soon. The new generation of S-Class will be available for purchase in September. Stay tuned for more S-Class teasers.