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The technology needed to affect and automate cars is coming of age in tandem with the technology that powers augmented reality. Automakers keen on capturing the eye of their customers, and even attracting alternate types of revenue, are considering the potential use cases of AR, now and in the longer term. The integrations which might be coming to market today are less gimmicky than you’d expect, given the metaverse-fueled hype around AR, and are literally poised to be useful to drivers.
Augmented reality safety features that will help drivers with navigation and detecting possible threats on the road are the primary applications that the auto industry is seeing, and people deliver value now, providing an on-ramp to a future-proof business that anticipates a driverless future.
A handful of software corporations are racing to supply products for the growing sector and integrate their tech with OEMs.
On Wednesday, Basemark, a Finnish company that makes a speciality of automotive software, announced that its AR over-video application would now be available in a number of the latest BMW iX models. The next day, Harman, a subsidiary of Samsung that makes a speciality of connected automotive technology and other IoT solutions, said it could be acquiring Apostera, an organization whose AR software would help Harman expand its automotive offerings to offer an AR platform-as-a-product.
“For us this was a very necessary acquisition, simply because we feel there’s an amazing change going through the industry, and it’s not only electrification,” Armin Prommersberger, senior vp of product management in Harman’s automotive department, told TechCrunch. “Electrification is just the place to begin. What’s really happening from our perspective is consumerization. The automotive is becoming way more than a transportation device from A to B.”
Basemark’s integration with BMW and Harman’s acquisition of Apostera not only signal a number of the players within the industry which might be making their mark, but in addition what use cases we will expect to see from augmented reality in vehicles.
Applying AR to video feeds for safer navigation
Drivers with certain BMW i4 vehicles will experience augmented reality directly through their infotainment screen while they’re using BMW’s navigation system, in line with Tero Sarkkinen, CEO and founding father of Basemark. The vehicle’s front-view camera will robotically send live footage of the road in front of the automotive to the touchscreen, where interactive arrows appear over the real-world environment to point out the driving force when and where they should turn or in the event that they should switch lanes. The screen shall be split to also show the map alongside the video.
There are in fact other applications for this type of tech, like heads-up displays (HUD), which appear over windshields so drivers don’t must take their eyes off the road, Sarkkinen says.
Apostera already has a HUD product in production with Audi’s Q4 e-tron, which is reactive enough to accurately stick with a driver’s real environment. The AR windshield on the Audis displays necessary information just like the driving speed, traffic signs, the status of the driving force assist system and navigation symbols as static displays. Drivers may even find a way to perceive floating symbols to be about 30 feet away, and people will alert drivers to things like lane departure warnings or highlight an lively automotive driving in front when in adaptive cruise control mode.
Basemark is working toward using sensors to provide drivers more details about their surroundings. At CES, the corporate displayed its AR with object detection prototype, which takes in raw camera and radar data and performs sensor fusion to assist drivers when there’s low visibility to extend safety.
Basemark is currently conducting pilots with other OEMs, so we is likely to be seeing more of them in the longer term.
Augmenting advanced driver assistance systems
Many of the impressive ADAS features on latest vehicles are taking up an increasing variety of driving tasks, but that doesn’t all the time put drivers comfortable, says Andrey Golubinskiy, former CEO of Apostera and now senior director of Harman’s ADAS strategic business unit.
“If you’re turning on some functionality, you as a driver don’t have an understanding of why the automotive behaves in a certain way,” Golubinskiy told TechCrunch. “So we solve it in the way in which that we continually visualize what the automotive sees and supply object recognition for the driving force. We also visualize what the automotive thinks, so what the automotive goes to do next.”
Harman’s software offering, with Apostera’s IP integrated, will compute this information and visualize it for the driving force and passenger so that they know why the automotive might suddenly change lanes or attempt to avoid an obstacle. This helps to extend the trust, and due to this fact the usage of the already available ADAS systems in vehicles, says Golubinskiy.
But it doesn’t stop at visual cues. The latest ADAS unit at Harman can be working on adding audio warnings to accompany visual object recognition.
“That’s pretty helpful because every little thing that goes through the ears results in your brain much faster and is processed much faster than any visual,” said Prommersberger. “So this type of immersive combination of augmented reality, mixed reality, visuals and audio is the following evolutionary step. And now with our acquisition of Apostera, we now have all of the components in-house.”
While Harman says its AR platform is already available in the market with some customers, it’s in a position to repeatedly onboard latest features with over-the-air updates. The company says its product is hardware, operating system and sensor-agnostic, so it’s designed to reuse data that’s coming in from any vehicle network.
The passenger’s AR experience
Down the road, in a future where self-driving is the norm, AR will allow passengers to interact with the encircling of the vehicle, says Golubinskiy.
“For example, you may drive through the Alps and see some beautiful churches or lakes, and you’ll be able to engage with a touchscreen on the windows and get a special level of interaction,” said Golubinskiy. “The information is definitely projected, and with a touchscreen you’ll be able to touch, for instance, the mountain and get information in regards to the height or other information.”
With in-car tech comes subscription offerings
Cars with augmented reality options are still few and much between, however the trend we’re seeing with other in-car tech in the mean time is to monetize smart vehicle offerings through subscriptions. At CES, Google and Amazon introduced latest in-car features that enhance a automotive’s infotainment systems, even allowing passengers to stream YouTube videos or Amazon Prime, things which might be prone to develop into available through a monthly purchase.
Last 12 months, General Motors said it expected its in-car subscription services for things like OnStar, emergency services, ADAS systems and navigation to generate nearly $2 billion in revenue, with a possible to make as much as $25 billion for the corporate by the tip of the last decade.
In a world where pandemic-related supply chain issues are causing delays in latest vehicle production and automakers are spending more on electrifying, it’s easy to see how AR applications is likely to be used to provide automakers a brand new avenue to increased profits.
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