Land Rover Invents the First Invisible Car (Sort of)

Land Rover is showing off an amazing new “transparent bonnet” technology that allows the driver to virtually “see through” the hood of the Land Rover SUV to the ground underneath. The combination of grille-mounted cameras and a heads-up display allows the driver to see the terrain directly in front of the vehicle, which would otherwise be obscured by the hood, and even the direction of the front wheels.

While at first the technology may seem like a gimmick, it could prove quite useful in some situations. Imagine negotiating a narrow track on a dirt road (as we see in the video), or driving the vehicle onto a ramp or overhead lift where front wheel alignment is critical. And the use of a virtual display rather than a front bumper camera streaming to the center console allows the driver to keep an eye on the road as well as the virtual view simultaneously. Of course, the most critical component of such a system is that the image is precisely aligned or else it could cause more problems than it solves.