One of the highlights of the eighth Passat generation is the new head-up display. It projects relevant trip data and alerts onto a high-quality slide-out pane positioned directly in the driver’s field of vision. This technical innovation can now be ordered as an option for the whole Passat range.
At the press of a button, the transparent display rises from its position behind the dashboard into the driver’s primary field of vision. Speed, traffic signs, the activity of the assistance systems and other functions are displayed on the 10 x 15cm surface. The display has pin-sharp resolution of 480 x 240 pixels.
Drivers can also have navigation data or alerts shown on the head-up display. The driver’s eyes remain on the road, with the on-screen information appearing to be two metres in front of the vehicle. The advantage of this is that projecting alerts into the driver’s immediate field of vision reduces reaction time. In addition, the driver’s eyes do not need to refocus so often from far-field to near-field vision.
Using the infotainment system menu, the driver decides which items of information are displayed. The head-up display is activated by a separate control next to the rotary light switch. When not in use, the display disappears again – protected from dust – inside the dashboard. While not the most elegant system on the market (for example, BMW’s system simply projects onto the windscreen), this is an interesting step in making their products more premium. It won’t be a standard feature across the range, but having it as an optional extra is a start. These heads up displays should work nicely in tandem with Volkswagen Group’s new range of LCD instrument clusters.
