The Future is Lazers>>>>

My co-worker excitedly shot me an e-mail the other day, and I nearly fell out of my chair. The subject of his missive was an article from Gizmag. No sooner than I had released a podcast about V2V and V2I (Vehicle to Vehicle and Vehicle to Infrastructure respectively) technology, BMW released this helmet at the Consumer Electronics Show.

BMW’s HUD helmet. -Image Courtesy of BMW

If you listen to the podcast (here) you’ll hear all about the possibilities of your surroundings and fellow commuters being able to relay valuable information to you (similar to the way WAZE or other similar apps do). Well, here is how it could possibly look through the BMW HUD helmet:

HUD Display – Image Courtesy of BMW

Adding to their suite of illumination technology, they one-upped the K1600GTL’s articulating ‘adaptive xenon headlight’ with, hold it- LAZER HEADLIGHTS!!!
That’s right. Remember being a fan of Inspector Gadget as a kid- or maybe something else if you’re younger than me? Laser headlights allowed heroes to carve a way through villains’ hideouts and detonate explosives from afar. Well, turns out that’s not exactly how lasers work.

Laser Beam! -Image Courtesy of BMW

They can, however, carve a path through the darkness. The laser elements can illuminate over 1,960ft.  Or, if you’re a drag racer, all the way down the strip and then some.

Wow… I don’t know if I’m just hearing about C-ITS more and there is more in the news about it since it’s being adopted and implemented by several countries right now, or if I’m just more sensitive to it since I talked about it’s uses and I myself am more attuned to it being mentioned. Either way, it’s here and it’s getting crazier. And the laser headlights thing? Just one more step by BMW to outpace their competition (H-D just recently made the jump to HID and LED in their lighting departments).
#thefutureisnow
-Cheers