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HUD advantages are more theoretical less practical
Originally Posted by nabizzy
agreed completely, traded to A8 from an X5M and don't miss the HUD at all, the dash in the Audi more than makes up for it
Agree completely, the A8 dash screen is much better. It is where your eyes go for information when you have driven like that for the last 20 years. The A8 is my first Audi after 6 years in two BMW 5 series with HUDs, an E60 and an F11. The value of HUD, I thought, was completely oversold.
Reasons:
- the digital speedometer is by far not as informative as the analog instrument.
- the bottom of the windscreen is not a natural location the eye will find quickly because it lacks orientation landmarks.
- a person with glasses may have significant refocusing issues, let alone with polarized lenses. The dash is at a distance most multipurpose lenses will focus nicely.
- yet another location besides dash tach, navigation display to distract your attention.
- there is no additional info on that thing, it is completely redundant.
- the mirror image on the f11 HUD frame (they saved on the flat paint) was a complete nuisance right in the middle of the drivers field of vision.
I would certainly miss it, and will miss it if I move up to an A8 instead of a 750. I don't wear sunglasses, so it disappearing is a non-issue, and I use it constantly. Sure I wish the Audi HUD was more like the BMW M one, with the tach and the gear and everything, but even with just the speedo and the nannies (and in Lap Timer mode, coolant temp and gear), its still better than nothing.
Respectfully, some of you guys are nuts. This is the battle cry of a group of people's who's cars don't have a particular option so they they try to marginalize the missing equipment as useless and unnecessary while justifying what they have as being the better alternative. The large display in the A8's instrument cluster, beautiful as it is, is nowhere near as convenient as a true heads up display.
I had heads up on everything from my Grand Prix to my M5 and it is by far the option I miss the most. I nearly didn't pull the trigger on my 535 because it had everything but the heads up and even now I find myself casually searching for 535's that have it. Same with the A8.
The polarized glasses bit is true. It disappears but the solution is simply not to wear polarized glasses. Other than that, it is exponentially more convenient to use than the information display in the cluster because it is literally in your line of site. You focus on your speed, you focus on the road, focus on the speed, focus on the road. Turn by turn directions appear in the heads up so you don't need to look down. You have all your information in front of you without looking down at all. No information center or nav screen could be less distracting than this.
I agree with the OP in that I can't believe a flagship car wouldn't have this now. Both my 1998 and 2004 Grand Prix's had it as did my M5 and BMW's have had the option for over a decade now. I don't know why it's not more widely adopted than it is.
Yep, I get that a lot.
People who say that are usually not driving a D4 though
Originally Posted by Mike_k
The polarized glasses bit is true. It disappears but the solution is simply not to wear polarized glasses.
Excellent solution.
Unless you already have serious vision issues, and find it nearly impossible to drive or even walk the dog without them - like me.
The HUD is a neat feature, but I for one could care less about it.
We certainly will not get the advanced features of it, such as mapping and speed limits, here in the US that the Euro models have now.
For those who want to add one to your current car there are multiple aftermarket options available. There are several that plug into the OBD II port and can project tachometer, speed, coolant temp, voltage, etc.
When I decided to go for the A7 rather than 535, I thought HUD was not as important because of the big middle display on the instrument cluster. Now that I've been driving with the HUD for a few months, I love it. Yes it does repeat info that's provided elsewhere, but it doesn't have to be set that way. Between the HUD, instrument display and MMI, you have three areas that you can display info in various configurations. Sometimes I'll just have the Nav directions only on the HUD, while the MMI is on music and the instrument cluster is showing the enviro/trip data or night vision. I love having that kind of flexibility.
04-06-2014, 01:36 PM
HUD advantages are more theoretical less practical
