Jaguar Land Rover set to reinvent the windshield by making it virtual

Heads-up displays are not uncommon among today's cars, but they don't tell you much you couldn't otherwise see by simply glancing down at the dashboard. It is, then, a convenience item with some novelty value sprinkled in. And that's all fine. But what if it was something more?

What if you your whole windscreen turned virtual, like a computer game, displaying images like upcoming hazards, sat-nav information, the predicted path of the car in front, and, if you're on a racetrack, things like ghost cars, braking points, virtual cones and the ideal racing line.

Yes, Gran Turismo 6 could become a reality inside the car if Jaguar Land Rover has anything to do with it. And according to the British manufacturer, it's already in the works.

Autocar says JLR showed off the system yesterday at its Gaydon, England, development center, as well as pointing towards other future technologies such as lasers.

No, these aren't James Bond's people-zapping lasers (that will have to stay virtual for now) but lasers housed in the foglamps that could project images onto the road surface to map topography for off-road use, or to help a driver maneuver through tight city spaces by projecting the car's width as a virtual grid.

Lasers will soon replace the conventional bulky LED headlamps, too, and automakers like BMW and Audi have already announced a system that utilizes lasers to better illuminate the road. The miniscule lights (just a few microns in diameter) will allow designers more freedom when creating the cars of tomorrow, meaning we could in theory enjoy a radical shift in vehicle aesthetics.

JLR has given no indication as to when these technologies could reach production, but what's most interesting to me is the news about the virtual windscreen. It might seem far fetched right now, but it makes a lot of sense. Just envisage the possibilities: racetrack enthusiasts could have a virtual driver coach, and the lasers could track pedestrians' movements, or animals skulking in the bushes, and show that path of predicted movement to the driver if it looks to be headed in a dangerous direction. We have collision avoidance warnings available today, but this would be far more visual (possibly more distracting) with better advanced warnings.

So like RoboCop, really. Only with less guns. Or like Google Glass, only less annoying.