. Volkswagen and Google Team Up to Explore
Future Vehicle Navigation Systems
Virtual Reality:
Prototype with Google Earth creates realistic 3D, satellite-based
map
AUBURN HILLS, Mich.
- Volkswagen of America, Inc. and Google recently presented the
future of vehicle navigation at the 2006 International Consumer
Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas, and it's closer to virtual
reality than ever before.
Volkswagen, Google,
and graphics chipmaker, nVidia, are working on an in- car navigation
map system and display that is 3-dimensional and more real looking
than anything that's available today.
Driver and Passenger
will be able to instinctively recognize where they are in relation
to the surrounding topography, especially in urban areas that are
depicted with depth and accurate size relationships between buildings
and roads.
Volkswagen, working
through its Electronic Research Laboratory (ERL), in Palo Alto,
Calif., together with Google and nVidia, is also working on other
advancements, including automatic personalized content updates for
its vehicle navigation systems.
Highlights
of Volkswagen's prototype vehicle include a vehicle-centric
touchscreen interface to Google Earth with state-of-the-art
graphics, accurate 3D maps and real-time traffic updates
and routing. This open system harnesses the power of the
web to maintain a dynamic database of current information
on restaurants, dealerships, gas stations and other points
of interest that can be overlaid directly onto the user's
3D map. With the increasing accuracy of GPS, dead-reckoning
and laser-radar imaging, as well as ever-improving car-to-
infrastructure communication, this prototype will be available
on showroom floors in the near future.
High-quality 3D and satellite-based
representations of the world are becoming an exciting feature in on-line
search engines and navigation. These photo-realistic, high-resolution 3D
images are not only more engaging for the user, but they are also more efficient
and accurate at conveying information than traditional 2D mapping representations.
