Heads-Up Driving Display Startup Navdy Raises $20 Million In New Funding

Last year, we reported on Navdy’s futuristic device that mounts on the dashboard of a car and projects on a heads-up display that allows a driver to see and control the basic functions of a smartphone with voice and hand gestures. Now, the San Francisco-based startup has announced that it has raised $20.3 million in new funding, which the company will use to continue growing its team and ramping up manufacturing.

Navdy’s product is actually a small projector that is mounted in front of a reflective glass panel that sits atop the dashboard. The system connects to smartphones and the car’s computer wirelessly and projects information on the transparent screen. The display is said to be barely noticeable when it isn’t turned on.

Although heads-up displays have been used on commercial aircrafts for a long time, Navdy co-founder and CEO, Doug Simpson, says that he is not aware of any such product that is being sold to the public that integrates with smartphones or enables voice or gesture control. Simpson says that auto companies have expressed interest in the product already. Although he was hesitant to identify who they were, he agreed that electric car maker Tesla would be “interested in being ahead of the curve.” Additionally, BMW recently hosted a hackathon at Navdy’s headquarters for several hundred software developers. It certainly appears that automakers are already expressing interest in Navdy’s yet-to-be-released product.

Reducing distracted driving is a hot topic in the auto industry, and many states now have “no texting” laws to increase road safety. Navdy’s product aims to help with this initiative by providing ways for drivers to communicate and interact with smartphone notifications and apps without being overly distracted. The mounted device allows users to send and receive text messages, make phone calls and get driving directions from Google Maps, all while using only hand gestures and voice commands. Importantly, the information can be seen by a driver by only glancing down a little bit, as opposed to looking at a smartphone that is in their hand, thereby providing a safer solution.

Clearly, Navdy’s product has the potential to be popular once it is released. The company started accepting pre-orders last August, and customers have already paid $6 million for more than 17,000 units, all before the display is even available. The company originally planned to begin shipping in the summer, but it has now pushed that date back to sometime later in the year.

“We didn’t expect the number of pre-orders we got, so that’s forced us to change our supply chain strategy,” Simpson told Fortune.

The surprisingly high volume of pre-orders coupled with investor interest prompted the company to raise more funding than the $15 million it had originally anticipated, as well as accelerating the time frame for raising the funds. The latest round is coming only eight months after a previous funding round.

With self-driving cars being one of the hottest current topics in the auto industry, Navdy’s push comes at an interesting time. There’s no question that there’s a great deal of competition in this realm, with Google and some other automakers unveiling self-driving prototypes, as well as companies such as Cruise that are developing self-driving systems that will be able to be installed into existing cars.

However, according to the majority of speculation, self-driving technology is still many years away from being available to the public. Therefore, Simpson says that he isn’t worried about this competition, as Navdy’s product will be available much sooner than self-driving cars. Additionally, he explains that the product will continue to evolve over time. For example, it’s possible that Navdy’s technology will eventually use the car’s entire windshield, instead of using a mounted piece to display information. Additionally, Simpson expects that the company’s technology could become an important tool for passengers to use while traveling in self-driving cars, once they become a reality on our roads.

The possibilities for Navdy’s technology to evolve are certainly open-ended, and Simpson says that the company has already improved the display’s hardware and software designs since the original version that was showcased last year. At some point in the future, the company plans to let third-party developers create apps and software for its display, which will provide drivers with a wider range of apps and increasingly useful ways to interact with their smartphones. It’s an exciting product, and it may prove to be very popular once it’s available on the market. We’ll be watching as this story develops!