Found: Hitachi 2400 Smart Windshield

Keep your eyes on the road—through an overlay of maps, games, ads, chat windows, news reports, calendar alerts...

One of my favorite projects when I was an editor at Wired magazine was the monthly back-page item Found: Artifacts From the Future. Each installment was a full-page image of some found object from a speculative near future. All explanation of what the object was and how it worked had to be diegetic—i.e., the page had to explain itself entirely through context and in situ text, with no annotation or caption. This was a great challenge for me as a writer/editor and for all of the designers, illustrators, and photographers I had the pleasure of working with. These pages never made much of an impact online because the fun was always in the fine print—which rarely came through at web resolution. I’m republishing them here to drill down on those cool details.

This piece ran in January 2008, and I think it’s maybe the best Found item. Most of the credit goes to photographer Erik Pawassar, who snapped this pic while driving up the 101, and the brilliant designer Carl DeTorres, who laid out the dizzying HUD on the windshield. (Carl makes a cameo as another driver, Santino, who appears in a live-video inset.) There are references to several other Wired designers in the string of text messages.

I’m particularly proud of the location-based pop-up window exhorting you to take the next exit to get a discount at Starbucks—Waymo actually does that now. And the idea of scanning license plates to do a security check on other drivers is now actual tech that law enforcement has access to. Other funny details: Starbucks has an offering called ‘Espresso Poppers,’ San Mateo is suffering from cataclysmic global warming, and Google’s stock valuation has exploded.
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Detailed images and full text below.

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BMW M6
3,413 MILES
2600 RPM
​|||||||||||FUEL

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MEDIA VIEWER

ONLINE DRIVERS
​SadieLu: what up dog​
​wonderdani: drivin you crazy​
​tastydigits: where's the party?​
​Markmaker520: make it a double​
​Jerrybusiness: capecoderi​
​C ChimChim: candlestick maker!​
​Maggieo7: what up dog

COMMUTER CHAT NETWORK
Santino: bada bing!

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HANDS-FREE TETRIS

NASDAQ
MSFT: 1.38
GM: .08
TM: 1231.01
SBUX:374.22
FCBK:92
G00G:1,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000

THURS // JAN 10 // 8:45 AM
MTG w/ HR Department
In 15 minutes.
Look at Target and Blink 3 Times to Reschedule

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WARNING
Han, Jennifer // Age 23
Expired Registration. DUI Conviction 2012
​

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COUPON ALERT:
Special Offer
Expires in 15 minutes
$5 Off Espresso Poppers
THIS EXIT

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ETA
Distance to Office: 12 miles
Estimated Arrival: 41 minutes

OPERATION ALERT
Hitachi 2400 Smart Windshield
Recommend Upgrading to 05 2.7
Look at Target and Blink Rapidly to Install