A GPS App With a Badass Wikitude

Worst headline pun ever. I’m so sorry. But, if you can forgive me, I’ll fill you in on something totally wikid. Okay, no, seriously, that’s the last ‘wiki’ pun. I’m lucky I was even able to get two.

Alternate reality just keeps getting better; of course, when I say ‘better’ I mean ‘more practical’, due to augmented reality already pretty well being the zenith of rad things. But this is, like, turbo-rad.

Wikitude Drive is an Android app, now in beta, that functions like every other GPS app and/or unit you’ve ever encountered, Jamesbondian sexy female voice and all, but includes a notable difference in that it overlays directions on top of the road ahead in real time. This is not only cool, but, according to the Wikitude team, much safer. How much safer? Good question, let’s ask.

Wikitude Drive solves a key problem that all other navigation systems have. These systems require the driver to take his eyes off the road in order to look at the abstract navigation map. Just by looking at the map screen for one second when driving at 100 km/h (62 mph), the driver is actually “blind” for 28 meters (92 ft). Think about how much can happen in those precious meters.

A sobering thought, Wikitude team. A sobering thought.

Anyway, if you wanna get a sweet eyeful of this app, it’ll be available on the US Android Market at precisely 10am PST today, but only for 2000 downloads, so you’re totally wasting time by reading this.

And you’re wasting even more time by watching this. You’ll be lucky if you get to the Android Market in time at all, guys.

[vimeo]http://vimeo.com/11870382[/vimeo]

[Via Wikitude Press Release]