CES 2020: Bosch creates virtual sun visor

You know the scenario – you’re driving home from work into a setting sun and peak-hour traffic, and you just can’t wrestle the sun visor into a position the blocks the sun without obscuring the road ahead.

It’s an annoying and dangerous situation most of us can relate to but, thanks to German tech company Bosch, it could be a thing of the past – and so could sunglasses.

A far more advanced version of the yellow-tinged aftermarket visors already available, Bosch’s newly developed ‘Virtual Visor’ could replace the age-old sun visor we’re accustomed to with a flip-down transparent LCD screen that uses artificial intelligence to block out sun from the driver’s eyes.

Using an occupant-monitoring camera inside the screen, it can “track shadows across the front passengers’ faces and identify facial features to create a shadow that looks like a robotic Venetian mask”.

According to the USA’s National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, the sun’s glare causes nearly twice as many accidents as other weather-related conditions.

The Virtual Visor is now on display at this year’s Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas and is still only in concept form at this stage, but according to Autoblog Bosch is in talks with manufacturers about bringing the technology to production.

“For most drivers around the world, the visor component as we know it is not enough to avoid hazardous sun glare – especially at dawn and dusk when the sun can greatly decrease drivers’ vision,” said Bosch Car Multimedia boss Dr Steffen Berns.

“Some of the simplest innovations make the greatest impact, and Virtual Visor changes the way drivers see the road.”