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Range Rover to fit trendy new SUV with FRIKKIN' LASER HUDs

Evoque provides holographic help for the school run

Yummy Mummies of Chelsea, rejoice. No more getting lost taking the nanny back to the station when you are visiting the country cottage.

Keep your eyes on the road

Range Rover is to fit frikkin' lasers to its cars. The iconic car company claims its new Heads Up Display to be the first to have used lasers and says it will project secondary driver information display directly onto the vehicle’s windscreen and into the driver’s field of vision.

“In a world first, the Land Rover system features laser holographic techniques, resulting in superior colour saturation, brightness and contrast compared to rival systems, and all in a small, lightweight package,” it beams.

Range Rover explains that the laser system is more robust against issues such as “washout” - the effect that the glare from sunlight has on LED-based systems.

The information the system can project includes road speed, gear position, turn-by-turn navigation, traffic sign recognition (hey, look – a sign!), the cruise control set speed and the Automatic Cruise Control (ACC) status, including warnings. It is not believed to have an alert to let you know when Waitrose receives stock of Heston Blumenthal ham hock terrines.

All functions can be switched on or off, brightness can be increased or decreased and the vertical position of the display can be adjusted from the cluster menu.

“Jaguar Land Rover’s HUD system is an innovative driver information tool, which really pushes the boundaries of advanced laser projection technology. It borrows from military technology - which, until now, has been unheard of in the automotive industry,” says Murray Dietsch, director Land Rover Programmes. “Land Rover is committed to preventing the risk of accidents by reducing driver distraction. By presenting key driver information in this way and removing the need for the driver to look away from the road ahead, HUD is an important step on the journey to delivering Land Rover’s vision of the intelligent car of the future.”

The new tech will cost £1,000 and will first be available on an especially patriotic version of the Evoque, which inspired by the colours of the Union Flag. It will come in Firenze Red, Fuji White, Loire Blue, Santorini Black and Corris Grey with a white roof and Union Flag graphics on the rear spoiler. So there must have been a few concerns last week as to how much blue paint they had ordered. Perhaps they planned a Saltire edition too. ®

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