At the Shanghai auto show later this month, BMW subsidiary Mini will show off its Mini Augmented Vision concept, specialized eyewear that projects a bunch of relevant information into the driver's view. According to the press release, the list of functions is pretty long: users can see navigation data, speed, speed limits, points of interest as they pass by, messaging alerts from a connected phone, and "augmented parking" — a camera on the far-side mirror projects its view into the driver's goggles, making finding the curb easier.

But the craziest concept might be "X-Ray View," which makes solid parts of the car around the driver effectively transparent so you can see obstacles, pedestrians, and other vehicles around you that would normally be concealed by your own car.

The hardware isn't all internal to Mini: the design of the actual goggles was done by BMW's DesignworksUSA design house, while some of the tech appears to have come from Qualcomm. Hopefully, we'll know more about how this works — and whether it'll come to real cars any time soon — in the next few weeks.

Grid View



































