As technology evolves a whole array of new features for cars become available for almost every aspect of the vehicle - from tires, to engines to powerful in-car entertainment systems. Now, specialist company Icon has just unveiled its modern-day take on the humble speedometer, and the new design opens up a whole range of possibilities about how we might drive and be entertained in our cars in the future.
The project, known as 'Icar', was undertaken in conjunction with renowned computer graphics company NVIDIA, and the new technology essentially replaces analog speedometers with new digital 3D displays that can be fully customized.
The compact system can incorporate a range of features on a single screen placed directly in front of the driver, rather than complex and expensive screens that must be built into center consoles. Some of the stats displayed include time, fuel consumption and speed, but there is also an option for viewing album art, navigation directions and title info for audio tracks.
The system already has several advantages over regular speedometers in that it can show much more information, and can be customized for specific regions that may use metric measurement systems for speed. On top of this, it’s likely that a number of other features could be incorporated into the system such as a telephone interface.
While there's no word on how long we might have to wait to see one of these gizmos in production vehicles, their development at Icon and NVIDIA is reportedly beyond just the initial design stages.