Porsche has invested in race instructor head-up displays

By topgear, 19 September 2018

You know those racing games that let you display a virtual racing line on-screen? One that turns red when you ought to brake, green when you should be accelerating and snakes its way through corners, showing you where to turn in?

Well, Porsche has just invested a bunch of money in a company that could bring such driving aids to your windscreen, via a deeply clever kind of head-up display.

WayRay, which was founded in Switzerland in 2012, specialises in holographic AR displays where “virtual objects can be seamlessly integrated into the world around the car”. Its technology uses a much smaller projection system than other HUDs, meaning it can be easily installed into any vehicle regardless of interior design.

Meanwhile its wide field-of-view means it can display more objects in a way that’s comfortable for a driver’s eyes.

The technology is “currently being tested for both drivers and passengers,” which Porsche says “offers potential for new concepts in the context of highly automated driving”.

The latest round of funding, which was led by Porsche but also involves Hyundai and Alibaba, was worth €69million to the Swiss start-up. The company, which employs 250 people, also has offices in Russia, China and the US, and hopes to be valued at $1billion by 2019.

As for when this tech will make it into your 911 (or, indeed, i30N)… hopefully not too long. We could use the help.