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DT Daily: Jaguar car tech, Virgin Oceanic sinks, massive holiday light display

Today on DT Daily: Check out Jaguar’s vision of the future with their new concept tech for cars, Virgin Oceanic puts its deep sea tourism plan on hold while it searches for new tech, and finally, if you’re not feeling it already, this synchronized Christmas light display should help get you in the holiday mood.

British car manufacturer Jaguar is showing off its Virtual Urban Windscreen concept technology, designed to give drivers a better view of the road and reduce the need to look at instruments. To demonstrate how the Virtual Urban Screen could be used, Jaguar has made this cool video showing off the tech. In it, a windscreen-wide heads-up display places warning boxes on pedestrians, cyclists, and other possible hazards to ensure they’re seen by drivers.

Embedded cameras make the car’s pillars virtually disappear for more visibility, and even a “ghost car,” familiar to any racing game fans, guides the way to your destination. Jaguar says it’s still working on the concept, but it could one day be a feature in its production vehicles.

Anyone waiting for a chance to book a voyage to the bottom of the sea on Virgin Oceanic’s DeepFlight Challenger submarine should prepare themselves for some bad news.

It looks like the project has been shelved for now, possibly due to Virgin Galactic’s SpaceShipTwo’s recent crash. The plan for DeepFlight was to take passengers to the deepest points of our oceans, provided they could splash out on the expected $500,000 ticket price. Now, according to reports, the submarine technology wasn’t quite what the team hoped, and it may not have been able to dive deep enough to complete the journey.

Virgin boss Richard Branson has hinted the project’s on ice for now, but said he’s not giving up, and is looking at new tech to make deep sea tourism safer and cheaper.

Feeling festive yet? Don’t worry if you’re not, because the residents of Manning Street in Yucaipa, California are here to get you in the holiday mood.

Rather than randomly put up Christmas lights around the neighborhood, 16 homes have got together and coordinated their displays, putting up a lightshow that pulses in time to music, creating a festive light show like no other. To get the full effect, visitors cruise down the streets with the car radio tuned to a special station. Anyone who can’t make it can just enjoy a spectacular drones-eye video, featuring music from the Trans-Siberian Orchestra.

According to one of the organizers, it took five days to program the lights for just one song – but the amazing results make it worth all that effort.

Your host today is Genelle Padilla. Miss a day? Watch all the episodes of DT Daily right here. And be sure to catch our latest podcast.

Bill Roberson
Former Digital Trends Contributor
I focus on producing Digital Trends' 'DT Daily' video news program along with photographing items we get in for review. I…
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