A lot of technology companies have been working on car projects, but the most mysterious and enigmatic in recent years is the Apple Car, an automobile developed by the Cupertino company best known for the iPhone and iPad.
Currently going under the codename Titan, very little is known about the car other than potential features it could have that are discovered through the company filing a range of automobile-themed patents.
The most interesting and potentially concerning of these is a patent filed in April 2023 for an augmented reality system that would turn the windscreen into a transparent computer monitor filled with all manner of data overlays.
This has led to some intrigue, as all Apple products seem to, but also some confusion and even concern in some circles.
The first is a matter of practicality. How dependent on the actual windscreen would the AR system be, and would it stop high-quality replacement services from fixing the windscreen on the Apple Car and require it to go to the manufacturer?
Would the system rely on a specially made windscreen or would it work like a more conventional heads-up display system that uses a small light to project the information onto the windscreen?
The other, much larger questions are concerns about how well the technology will work, how distracting it will be and even potentially if it is legal in countries with major restrictions on what you can and cannot do whilst driving.
Drivers tend to sit at different heights which means that you cannot create a single unified way of positioning information that is not uncomfortable to someone and would be particularly expensive to fix.
The much bigger issue is the problem of distraction. Current HUDs, which tend to consist of basic information such as speed and fuel information, already cause concerns that they are distracting road users and could lead to more accidents.
Adding a huge overlay with AR widgets could make this problem considerably worse.
Regardless of this, whether a modern car with a HUD or a classic car, fixing a windscreen is simply a matter of finding the right expert to evaluate your issue and provide excellent service.