Garmin HUD – inexpensive smartphone GPS heads up display

How often do you turn on your GPS and then check it constantly no matter how short the journey? These clever route-makers are great but are still a distraction. One way of solving the driver’s eyes being drawn from the road ahead is to have an expensive heads-up display (HUD) fitted to your car. Garmin have a more pocket-friendly solution.

Garmin has just announced a device that will keep you and your eyes on the road without breaking the bank.

The Garmin HUD is a heads-up-display that sits on your dash and projects a simple set of basic navigational data onto a transparent film fixed to your windscreen.

This means that you get similar features to those swanky motors for a relatively inexpensive $129.99.

Information displayed on the readout includes current speed, speed limit, an indicator to show when you turn next and the distance to said turn, as well as estimated arrival time.

There’s no detailed map or points of interest – this works well to keep drivers more focused on the road.

It also shows you upcoming traffic delays and traffic camera locations, and auto-adjusts for night and day.

The smarpthone HUD will work with any Bluetooth-capable smartphone running Android, iOS or Windows Phone 8 that can run Garmin’s StreetPilot and Navigon applications, and will land later this summer.