Hyundai Unveils New Holographic Windshield Display at Consumer Electronics Show

What Happened?

At the CES (formerly Consumer Electronic Show) 2025 in Las Vegas, South Korean automaker Hyundai revealed a new holographic windshield display.

It offers a potential upgrade to heads up display (HUD) technology.

A Hyundai spokesman called the new technology the first full-windshield holographic display because it spans the entire width of the car and uses the whole surface of the windshield.

The demonstration vehicle windshield belonged to a Hyundai Mobis Kia EV9, and the new display could be available for mass production as soon as 2027.

Why it Matters

As Sam Rutherford of Engadget reported:

‘Unlike traditional reflective HUDs, Hyundai Mobis’ holographic windshield display (HWD) consists of two main components: a projector (or in this case multiple projectors) hidden beneath the dash and a special optical film with a carefully tuned wavelength sensitivity embedded inside the windshield itself. This combination allows the HWD to pump out brighter and more colorful images with much shallower viewing angles. Unless you’re sitting in the right spot, you may not even see the HUD at all.’

While the new holographic windshield offers potential improvements for information to be displayed on the HUD like brighter speed and heading data, it could also be used to simply watch or stream video content by the passengers.

The latter could be particularly appealing to passengers of self-driving vehicles, who would not need to use the windshield for driving visibility purposes. Freed from the responsibility of driving, a holographic windshield could enable passengers to view entertainment or even for remote work while in motion.

Significantly, because of the angles at which the projectors are situated, any video content visible to passengers would be invisible to the driver, which would reduce the chances for distractions. Even in cars with a human driver, the holographic windshield could still be used for a variety of purposes by passengers.

For navigation, the new holographic displays can overlay mapping onto the surface of the windshield directly into the drivers field of vision. It would provide drivers with a more immersive and detailed experience while using digital maps to navigate.

Instead of having to glance from side to look at a digital map for navigation the new map would be right in front of the driver.

How it Affects You

BMW is working on similar technology which it claims will be available to consumers by the end of 2025.

However the BMW version uses a darker film embedded on the windshield’s glass to display the holographic projections, and because the film isn’t transparent the effect is very different from Hyundai’s.

In Hyundai’s version the driver and passengers can view holographic projections while still looking through the windshield. That is not the case with BMW’s product.

Each of these technologies points towards an evolving driving experience in the next five years, where drivers and passengers could have more entertainment options and information at their disposal.