By far the easiest way to travel somewhere new is when you have someone driving in front of you that you can just follow. We have GPS units, showing our car as it travels down the road, and we now have the accuracy to tell what lane we are in. We also have the ability to project images onto regions of our dashboard. Why not project the image of a car in front of us that we simply follow. Need to change a lane, and the car in front of you will signal and shift over. Need to turn and the car will actually turn slightly broadside and disappear out of view in the direction you need to turn.

For those who might think this gimmicky or silly, please reconsider. The key with a GPS is that you are guided minimally. That is to say you certainly can look down at any time and view the map if you must, or see how much time you have left in your trip if you must, but the main, essential function is that you are guided down the right path toward your destination. As such, the advantage to this visual presentation to the driver is that he or she is able to focus ahead, just like following another car, and all of the cues involved in switching lanes and turning are presented in a fun and “safely distracting” way. The image could be presented below the region of your view where the hood / front of your car ends.

I personally do a lot of driving. More than anyone I have ever met, except for professional truck drivers. My situation involves a lot of highway travel. I mute my GPS and the only issue I have is reminding myself to start paying attention to it when I get near this city or that city. Having a car in the low portion of my windshield directly above my steering wheel, suddenly put on it’s blinker and move over to the far left of my windshield, will catch my attention and will not distract me from the road. I call that a safe distraction. I would think that would be as cool as having one of my friends leading me to where I need to go.

Chess player thought. Using the motion sensing features now available in select cars, and combining that with this idea, you add a large brake light to the car image and add yet another valuable feature. Deer strike area, in the hours of dusk or dawn, and why not add hazards to the car image, and have the image of a deer stick his head up on the far right hand side of the screen when the hazards are started so you the driver know why the caution is in effect. Traction low, due to storm or road repair, just slide the image of the car back and forth a little, just to remind you of the condition, just like what you would see if your buddy was in front of you and he or she was slipping about.