Comments on: Toyota Prius dash keeps eyes on the road

By: Jim Calvert

Jim Calvert — Fri, 07 Aug 2009 01:14:28 +0000

Being an electronic enthusiast, I was disappointed to find out that the 2010 Toyota Prius marketed to the United States does not include HUD – while the HUD is included in the new Prius sold in other countries such as Australia.

I don’t understand why HUD was omitted. It should improve driver safety.

By: realcars

realcars — Fri, 19 Jun 2009 08:35:42 +0000

Tricky dash,Ugly car.

Centre dash yuk!!

By: The Realist

The Realist — Fri, 19 Jun 2009 02:27:05 +0000

My M5 has HUD, and it works great. Satellite navigation commands are also displayed.

My wife’s 335i has buttons utilising similar technology to the “touch tracer” described here.

By: D

Fri, 19 Jun 2009 01:16:17 +0000

@Frontman- at least Nissan came to their senses when they updated the Xtrail by putting the speedo back where its meant to be- in front of the driver!

By: D

Fri, 19 Jun 2009 01:14:11 +0000

DesignEngr that is so true!

I have no idea why Toyota keeps insisting on putting the speedo in the centre of the dash. It looks so stupid when you look down at the steering wheel and all you see is a big bit of plastic.

By: Frontman

Frontman — Fri, 19 Jun 2009 01:12:34 +0000

Actually I find it amussing, Toyota (and Nissan “Xtrail”) found it was “Safer” to put the instruments in the centre of the dash as part of the (quote from Echo’s press release) “Natural sweep of vision whilst driving”, but here they are with HUD directly INFRONT of the driver????? The mind boggles :-)_

By: DesignEngr

DesignEngr — Fri, 19 Jun 2009 00:54:52 +0000

So in reality the HUD is really needed on the Prius only because the dash is in the wrong place to start with?

At least CA identified this as a Toyota press release, and you can read into it what you wish.

By: Frontman

Frontman — Thu, 18 Jun 2009 22:55:38 +0000

Motorhead, I couldn’t agree more. What is with this putting the controls away from standard line of sight where every driver around the world has learnt to include them into their perripheral vision???
Simple little screens (like Fords HMI interface screen) places neatly between the standard positioned dials worke every bit as well and may well be less distracting to those of us who have to travel to places like Roma at night. (long straight poor quality roads, no street lights or fences, with wild life and livestock free to sleep where they please!) As for the steering wheel controls, can anyone tell what the dfference is between taking a quick glance at the wheel is to looking to the side at a diagram and decifering what you are pressing, especially in terms of safety??

By: Motorhead

Motorhead — Thu, 18 Jun 2009 22:31:54 +0000

How about another revolutionary idea, put the dash infront of the bloody driver not the centre consol.

By: B-Man

B-Man — Thu, 18 Jun 2009 22:28:09 +0000

HUD was also available as an option on early 90’s honda prelude i believe.
Blaze, you’re right, the BMW system is quite good. Definatly the best one i have seen but still does take a while to get used to it. The active cruise control display is great!

By: figjam

figjam — Thu, 18 Jun 2009 21:09:00 +0000

Driving around with your eyes closed “alex” i hope i am nowhere near you on the road! from all reports so far the new prius does perform very well, might surprise a few!

By: Alex

Alex — Thu, 18 Jun 2009 15:23:07 +0000

It may keep eyes on the road, but being a Prius, will those eyes be closed?

By: Blaze

Blaze — Thu, 18 Jun 2009 14:56:16 +0000

@Stevo: My dad has a car with a HUD (BMW X6), and the HUD’s actually pretty useful. I found it weird to drive with at the start (At first I tended to either ignore it or be fixated on it), but after a couple of weeks I found that I stopped looking at the speedo/dash, and just used the HUD.

And also because the Navigation also comes up on the HUD, I also stopped using the central navigation screen while driving (except when I look at the clock).

After driving a car with a HUD, if you were to get into another car, you’ll find yourself looking at the glass where the HUD normally would be wondering what the speed is. (At first I thought that the HUD was a gimmick but I was soon converted.)

By: Frenchie

Frenchie — Thu, 18 Jun 2009 12:18:59 +0000

GM vehicles have HUD on (some) of their vehicles since 1988!
Very popular in the US.

By: Carz

Carz — Thu, 18 Jun 2009 12:10:43 +0000

It’s cool! I’m into this new innovations and would definitely love one in my car.It’s great actually, make cars interesting.

By: quiet1

quiet1 — Thu, 18 Jun 2009 08:35:58 +0000

Any idea of whats the price is in Oz yet??

By: Hans

Hans — Thu, 18 Jun 2009 07:58:03 +0000

its all the same with this new geek stuff
u buy a new car, u are exited about all the little new features HUD, distance-controll, the lightstuff (i don’t know the english name for the automatic turn on – turn off driving beam ) and so on….
but after the first 200 miles of driving (specially on the Autobahn) u will turn nearly everything off!

By: Golfschwein

Golfschwein — Thu, 18 Jun 2009 07:13:07 +0000

Steve, I drove a Citroen C6 a few days ago with HUD. It’s groovy, but you could still run into a bus if your eyes and mind are fixated on the fascinating digits :)

By: Stevo

Stevo — Thu, 18 Jun 2009 06:54:58 +0000

Can anyone that has owned a car with HUD (such as the old Nissan Bluebird) tell me their thoughts. I am surprised this one hasn’t really taken off.

Touch Tracer looks like a good idea, especially if you own a 2 cars with steering wheel buttons in different places.

By: Joober@work

Joober@work — Thu, 18 Jun 2009 06:53:18 +0000

Innovation???, I recall the last model Nissan Bluebird SSS (long long time ago, 1993?) had a heads up display for speedo???, although that was about it, the speedo…