Juniper Research predicts that the automotive HUD market will exceed 16 million installed units worldwide by 2021.
Increasing HUD adoption in mass-market vehicles will drive the forecast four-fold growth, with a boost from aftermarket HUD sales. The market will accelerate in 2017; Juniper expects that 12.5% of new vehicles will feature a factory-fitted HUD by 2021.
Augmented reality HUDs ‘could be a game changer’, says Juniper Research. However, cost and technical challenges remain. Combined with production delays, AR HUDs are likely to represent less than 6% the OEM HUD market by the end of the forecast period.
Adding more content is likely to lead to information overload for the driver, especially in the case of aftermarket smartphone HUDs. “At present, there is a legal void with respect to what type of content should or should not be displayed on HUDs,” said Juniper’s Gareth Owen. “The NHTSA [National Highway Traffic Safety Administration] is currently studying HUD displays and plans to issue guidelines soon which could hit aftermarket HUD sales in the coming years.”
Juniper expects the automotive HUD market to be impacted by AR glasses. In the long term, the firm believes that AR HUDs could replace the centre-dash stack. (General Motors also subscribed to that view at the SID – Man. Ed.)
