I was having a conversation last night with an old friend of my mom’s. He was telling me how much more difficult it has become to drive as he has been getting older, because of challenges with his vision.
It’s not that he has any trouble seeing the road. Not at all. It’s more that he needs to wear glasses for near vision — first bifocals and now trifocals — so that he can focus on both the road and the dashboard.
I was very sympathetic. Driving is already difficult enough. It’s even more difficult when you need to tilt your head in just the right way so that you can clearly see both the world outside and the speedometer on your dash.
I told him that they ought to make an overlay for the dashboard that changes its focus — so that you can see everything on your dash clearly using your distance vision. Not corrective lenses for the driver, but rather corrective lenses for the car.
After all, why should you need to wear glasses, when it would all work so much better if your car wore glasses instead?
Audio seems like an appropriate solution. On later high-end models, all the hardware (and probably 80% of the software) is already there.
“Car, speed?” “62 miles per hour”
“Car, fuel?” “Your tank is 30% full, with a range of approximately 105 miles”
I see your point, but I’m not sure I agree. One nice thing about the modern visual interface for the car is that it is properly operable without requiring one’s full conscious attention. I suspect my mother’s friend would much rather continue to talk with his lovely wife during their drive to my mom’s house, rather than needing to choose between that conversation and checking whether he is under the speed limit.