Hudway app turns your phone into a head-up display

It was just this July that we heard about Garmin's HUD. It's a portable device that sits on the dashboard of the user's car, working with their smartphone to project a head-up display (HUD) onto the inside of their windshield. Russian startup Hudway has taken that same basic approach with its self-named free app, except that it utilizes just the phone – no projector is required.

The Hudway app is currently only available for iOS devices, although an Android version is expected to be ready in February.

To use it, you start by inputting your starting point and destination, and then creating a mapped route between the two. This is the only step in the process in which internet access is required.

You then place the iPhone, iPad or iPod touch on your dash, preferably on an anti-slip surface such as a silicone pad. Using the device's GPS and accelerometer, the app keeps track of data such as driving speed, geographic location, upcoming curves and hills in the road, and distance to required turns.

Everything is displayed on-screen upside-down and backwards, so that it appears right-side-up and forwards when reflected onto the windshield. It works in the same way as a TelePrompTer.

As can be seen in the supplied photos, however, the reflected image can be a little double-visiony. It also likely doesn't show up that well in bright sunlight, although the designers point out that the app should be most helpful at night or in other low-visibility situations, anyways.

Hudway is available now, on iTunes – if you want the ad-free version, it'll cost you 99 cents. It can be seen in use in the video below.

Source: Hudway via Digital Trends