Augmented Reality (AR) has been around for a while now, but it’s fair to say that the technology is not being used for practical reasons, so much as for show. However, with the just-revealed electric concept car from Swiss "deep tech" company WayRay, the company is making 3D augmented reality part of the car’s technology. 

The concept car by the Swiss company is designed for ride-hailing and is mainly a showcase for the holographic technology the company makes. The concept's purpose is serious: to demonstrate what Swiss company WayRay says is a new holographic windscreen display technology that will allow apparently three-dimensional images to be added to the real world. The angular concept that has been built to preview it, just officially unveiled in Germany, is a spectacular example of the attention-grabbing show car. 

WayRay says the Holograktor has been designed to preview a potential ride-hailing future, although not the fully autonomous one that even the makers of far-out concepts no longer regard as being inevitable. In addition to a fold-away steering wheel for the driver, it is also designed for remote operation "by a qualified driver using the car's cameras, radar, mapping and sensor suites." 

The Holograktor's primary purpose is to demonstrate WayRay's augmented-reality holographic displays. These use glass incorporating a transparent photopolymer film which is able to create an apparently three-dimensional image when struck by light generated by compact laser units. 

The company says that these Deep Reality Displays have a much bigger field of view than existing automotive head-up displays, and also that information can be shown much brighter at different apparent depths ranging between zero and infinity. Working without mirrors means the displays will still work in direct sunlight. The rear-seat passenger also gets a separate display projected onto a glass screen in front of them from a unit on the concept's roof the official release describes as "the shrimp."

When it comes to the question of what the displays will display, the Deep Reality Displays are capable of showing driving information, highlighting pedestrian crossings or red traffic lights. The system won't show anything to distract a driver when the car is moving, although passengers will still be able to be targeted. 

But WayRay is also predicting a future that includes radically different content on their AR screens; from games, scheduled appointments, and highlighting the proximity of social media contacts to, of course, advertising, all within a metaverse world filled with quirky characters and funky animations. 

WayRay says the display technology is ready for production, either in a street-legal version of the Holograktor, or in conjunction with other automakers. Porsche, Hyundai, and Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba are all early investors of this technology, and WayRay says that they are targeting a release by the end of 2025, most likely with a major automaker. 

It’s exciting to see this kind of application for technology in cars, but how and when it will be used will be another question altogether. We hope that when it does come, we’ll be able to embrace it and enjoy it for how far car technology has come. 

What do you think about this article? Are you excited to see this technology happen? Let us know in the comments!

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