Heads-Up Displays (also called HUD) are, in my opinion, one of the cooler ways to get GPS navigation and instructions. For those unfamiliar, HUD projects the navigation information right on your windshield, sometimes with augmented reality so it looks like the directions are overlaid on the roads themselves. The benefit to this, of course, is that you won’t have to look away from the road, even for a second, to get directions. The downside is that HUDs are usually extremely expensive as it’s still a pretty new technology.
However, it looks like a fully-funded Kickstarter project has launched that will make HUD more readily available to your average consumer. Completely funded last week, and still available through the company website, Hudify is a HUD that is designed to work with your cell phone. This aftermarket HUD is not quite as cool as the ones that project on your windshield, but it’s still a cool idea.
The obvious downside of this is, to me, the fact that you have to use your cell phone instead of a more reliable navigational source, but the convenience of not having to look away from the road (and let’s be honest, it looks pretty sweet) makes this still awfully tempting.
According to the Hudify website, the device is designed to work with any cell phone, and the company is pushing the Navmii GPS World app (available for iPhone and Android) as navigation, although any HUD-compatible app should technically work. I personally have no experience with Navmii, but it does look pretty decent and can be used offline, so that’s a plus.
In addition to being used for directions, Hudify can also be used as a speedometer. You know, in case you don’t want to look at your actual speedometer, I guess. Seems like kind of a weird feature to me. Regardless, this device seems like it could be extremely useful for people who normally use their phones for navigation.
Hudify is available now for about $45 USD (the company is from Canada). As the project just closed on Kickstarter, there isn’t a solid release date, but the website and Kickstarter both say that it should be shipped in August 2017. For more information on Hudify, check out the website.
