Driving along the Sea to Sky Highway this week to Vancouver and back, I couldn't help wishing that technology could find a way to improve the abilities of some of the more shall I say, unpredictable drivers I encountered.
I have to say unpredictable actually, because we can't print what I really call them while I'm driving. This is a family paper, after all.
I know statistics say 99 per cent of drivers think their skills are superior to everyone else's, but then again 85 per cent of all statistics are also made up on the spot by lazy writers.
Either way, I'm sure you'll agree there are a lot of really bad drivers careening along the corridor, and boy could they use some help.
And I'm not talking about the guy with his turn signal on for the past 25 kilometres. He's merely humorous, and likely just listening to his radio too loud to hear the click-click of the signal.
No, I'm talking about the guy who drives 120 kilometre on the straightaways and then slams on his brakes at every bend in the road - of which the 99 has many, many!
Or the person swerving from lane to lane as they try to read a map spread out over the steering wheel. Yeah, I love that warm and fuzzy feeling of security when I see that guy coming along in the opposite lane.
The folks at General Motors must drive the Sea to Sky regularly, or perhaps they know people from Washington and B.C., because they are working on developing a new type of windshield that could actually aid drivers.
GM has been working with different universities to develop a next-generation heads-up display (HUD) that transforms your ordinary windshield into an augmented reality information dashboard.
Using a combination of night vision, camera sensors and GPS navigation, the car's on-board computer gathers information about your surroundings as you drive and transmits it onto your windshield.
Is it foggy out?
No problem. The windshield could outline the lines on the road so you can navigate more easily.
Not sure where you're going?
The GPS can guide you visually right to where you need to go, even outlining the building that's your final destination.
The technology not only looks at what's outside the vehicle, but could also incorporate driver-tracking hardware that monitors where you're looking, and sounds an alarm if you fall asleep at the wheel.
You can see a YouTube video about its development at tinyurl.com/GMwindshield.
The carmaker says to expect the technology in its future cars.
Critics of the HUD windshield concept however, argue that the glowing lines and various displays may be overly distracting and could cause more accidents than it prevents.
Still others worry that like with most new tech, the HUD windshield will have its share of bugs and glitches, which could also cause accidents.
That's understandable. When my computer crashes at home, I just swear and reboot the machine. So when your computerized windshield crashes do you as well?
It will still be some time before we see this tech in our cars. But it is coming soon.
And if it is developed and tested correctly, who knows, it could very well serve to improve everyone's driving.
Well, not mine, of course. My driving skills are superior to everyone else's. I've got the statistics to prove it.
