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35 Heads-up display (HUD) technology is a driver information system that, says Eelco Spoelder, head of the Instrumen- tation & Driver HMI business unit, Continental ( continental-corporation. com ), is poised for signifcant growth. Continental is no stranger to the technology, as BMW frst ofered a Continental color HUD back in 2003. Today, Spoelder says, there are 10 global OEMs that ofer HUD technology on a total of 19 models. For 2014, Spoelder reckons, the total number of HUDs produced will be on the order of 1.5-million units. But about that growth: "By 2018, this fgure will probably triple to around 5-million units worldwide." And he says that because of (1) the company's long-time involvement in the technical development of HUD and (2) the company's manufacturing plant in Babenhausen, Germany, where they p This is the combiner HUD. Note that the graphics are displayed on a sheet of glass (or plastic) that's afxed to the top of the instrument panel; they are not displayed on the windshield, as is ordinarily the case with HUDs. This allows a smaller, more compact HUD system, which facilitates installation in compact cars. The combiner size is on the order of 2 liters inside the dash, with a conventional unit being approximately twice that. p For lane departure, those red dots, called "cats-eyes" are generated on the AR-HUD, alerting the driver that drifting is occurring. This visual cue can be complimented by several other vehicular outputs, ranging from slight torques on the steering wheel to vibrating seat cushions. make—from producing the mirrors to machining the die-cast housings to assembling the product—HUDs three shifts per day, fve days a week for customers including BMW, Audi and Mercedes, Continental has a solid competitive position to participate in that growth. It is worth noting, however, that while HUDs may be associated with BMWs and Mercedes and Corvettes and other vehicles that have tended to have price tags that make the option not much of a blip on the monthly payment, Spoelder says than an objective that they have is to also develop systems that will make HUD tech attainable for vehicles with more modest sticker prices. He says that this evolution is another step similar to what happened when they rolled out their second generation HUD system in 2010, which allowed midsized cars to ofer the technology at a reasonable price. HUDs Shrink; Market Expands In 2015, Continental will add a "combiner" HUD to its lineup, which is designed specifcally for smaller, less expensive vehicles. Whereas a conventional HUD makes use of the windshield of displaying information (even though the information appears to be some 2.5 meters ahead of the windshield, not on it), the combiner makes use of a plastic or glass that is attached to the top of the instrument panel directly in front of the driver. This takes the place of using the windshield for the information and it facilitates a signifcantly smaller package for the HUD system, requiring as little as half the ordinary volume required, or only about two liters. Spoelder says that when that 5-million unit mark is reached, the overall market will likely be split in half, the