We can often see in science fiction movies that drivers can check the road conditions and read information through the windshield. In fact, the use of this HUD technology not only ensures the safety of the car, but also enhances the car's interest and sense of technology. Especially in recent years, with the continuous development of intelligent driving technology, HUD is becoming the embodiment of intelligence and sense of technology, which has attracted the attention of major car companies and become one of the important means for car companies to attract consumers.

(AR HUD of Futurus)

In fact, HUD has been applied to automobiles for more than ten years since it was originally deployed in BMW high-end cars, and many domestic automobile companies have begun to enter related fields. Judging from the current market situation, the industry's research on HUD is becoming a new direction. HUD is no longer the symbol of high-end models, and more and more low-end models begin to use HUD technology. GVR report predicts that by 2025, the head-up display (HUD) market will reach $654.38+03.5 billion. In addition, it is expected that the HUD market revenue in the Asia-Pacific region will exceed that in North America.

It is understood that the main participants in the automotive HUD industry include Continental Group, Denso, Visteon, Bosch and other industry giants. Of course, there are also many entrepreneurs. Recently, Yiou Automobile interviewed Xu Junfeng, the founder of future black technology who has completed Pre-B financing.

Talking about the reasons for entering the HUD market, Xu Junfeng told Yiou Automobile that he personally liked to study optical technology, and finally discovered the use of optics in automobiles because of some coincidences.

Recalling the scene when starting a business, Xu Junfeng said that he wanted to do the binocular ar project. At that time, he had neither a product Demo nor a team. Through the introduction of friends, Xu Junfeng met Li Zhu, the founding partner of Innolux Angel Fund. After a talk, Li Zhu decided to vote for him. But this is still a drop in the bucket for the binocular ar project. So, Xu Junfeng decided to change direction.

In a chat with his younger brother, Xu Junfeng was inspired-"Since you missed the mobile Internet, you can catch a bus to connect to the Internet, and it would be great if you could make a full-window HUD". Later, many people found Xu Junfeng, hoping that he could develop the pre-HUD, so Xu Junfeng took the initiative to talk to the president of the research institute of the main engine factory, and found that the car factory did have a certain demand for HUD. In contrast, he also read some industry reports and found that the industry research report is also very simple for the study of HUD, and can not give a clear answer. Xu Junfeng himself thinks that the networking of automobile intelligence may be the root cause of the increasing demand for HUD, because it is very dangerous to watch the intelligent central control (or smart phone) while driving.

Until one day, he finally inadvertently verified his ideas. "One day, I went to Zhongguancun from the Fourth Ring Road and borrowed my friend's Audi. There is a traffic jam on the road. I wanted to turn on my mobile phone and re-plan my route, but the car in front suddenly braked suddenly and the two cars almost collided. I was shocked. This incident has made me more sure that HUD can do this. " Xu Junfeng told Yiou Automobile why he started to make HUD.

According to the introduction of Yiou Automobile, HUD is mainly divided into two categories: front loading and rear loading according to product attributes. Pre-installed products have been put into use before the car leaves the factory, and it is necessary to reach cooperation with the car factory; After-installed products are generally small in size, and consumers can purchase and install them themselves.

In the interview, Xu Junfeng introduced that HUD can be divided into C-HUD(CombinerHUD Combined) and W-HUD(WindshieldHUD Windshield HUD) according to different display screens. The C-HUD display screen is a transparent resin lens placed above the instrument, which is generally coated according to the imaging conditions, and the imaging light path does not pass through the windshield, so the design is relatively easy. C-HUD is a standard component. W-HUD directly uses the windshield of the car as a display device, and the display effect is integrated. However, because the windshield is generally curved glass, W-HUD needs to adapt to the high-precision free-form mirror according to the size and curvature of the windshield, which is difficult to design and complicated in manufacturing process, and it is easy to cause distortion, dizziness and unstable picture.

Xu Junfeng explained the difficulties in the development of W-HUD to Yiou Automobile with the mirror image principle. Because the surface of automobile windshield is a free-form surface, the image will be deformed. In addition, due to the movement of human eyes, the displayed image will rotate, deform and shake, and the most intuitive thing is to make the driver dizzy. This requires HUD to compensate the windshield progress through its own free-form surface to offset the above problems as much as possible. However, there are also some difficulties. Free-form mirror needs strong optical simulation and mathematical optimization ability to design and manufacture independently. It is worth noting that the driver must ensure that he can see the whole displayed image clearly during driving, but everyone's height is different, and his head will shift during driving. How to ensure that users can see the whole projection screen in front of them even if they move their heads slightly becomes particularly important.

At the same time, in the process of R&D, enterprises should also consider the requirements of car companies for installation quantity, and the bigger the screen, the more difficult it is. This requires not only to maintain a certain contradiction between power and energy consumption, but also to solve the imaging problem through reasonable use of light, and at the same time to ensure timely heat dissipation after long-term work, that is, to achieve the same brightness requirements with lower power consumption, which puts high demands on software technology and hardware equipment, so R&D is more difficult, leading to the R&D cost of W-HUD. Xu Junfeng revealed that the power of black technology pre-installed products can be reduced to 1~2W in the future, which is lower than the general level of the industry.

Generally speaking, the difficulty of front HUD is that products need to be customized from the vehicle development stage, and the technical barriers and input costs are high. Therefore, many start-up HUD companies have to embark on the road of cutting into the aftermarket. As an entrepreneurial company, of course, the future black technology can't be excused.

In the interview, Xu Junfeng said frankly that although C-HUD can be mass-produced soon, it is not just needed by the market at present, and consumers' acceptance of HUD is limited. However, in comparison, the challenges faced by the front-loading market are more difficult, with the characteristics of long research and development time, and it is necessary to follow the rhythm of the OEM and keep up with the pace of vehicle research and development. It will take 2-3 years to go public, and the shipping efficiency is low, so it is difficult to achieve large-scale expansion. Therefore, compared with the front-loading, the future black technology has to choose to cut into the afterloading market, solve the company's "survival" problem first, and quickly bring cash flow to the company. It is understood that at present, the future post-black technology market product "Bailuda" has been mass-produced, and consumers can buy it in Tmall Mall and airport stores.

(Bailuda HUD after-sales products)

According to Xu Junfeng, Bailuda HUD adopts patented technology of spatial composite parameter imaging and retina display technology, so users will not feel dizzy during use, and its brightness design can cope with different weather conditions. In addition, it is equipped with a voice interactive system, which can recognize the voice instructions of the owner.

But in the future, black technology has not given up the pre-installed HUD market. "The demand for front HUD is strong, and many car companies are overweight. This year or next year, we can see that the upcoming self-owned brand models will also be equipped with a lot of HUD functions. " Xu Junfeng said.

At the level of cooperation with car manufacturers, we not only cooperated with BMW to develop new HUD technology, but also cooperated with many car companies. Xu Junfeng said that the concept product of cooperation with BMW will be announced this year. At the same time, he also said that at present, there is no shortage of partners in the future car factory and some cooperation is being actively promoted.

When talking about his vision for the future, Xu Junfeng said, "Our company is very complicated and I have many ideas. In the future, our strategic focus will be to do to B business and cooperate with car manufacturers. " But in his mind, there is still a dream about technological innovation. In the future, he hopes to make the future black technology into an interesting black technology company like Bell Labs and Dyson through technological innovation. By then, the business involved in black technology in the future will no longer be just cars.