Lexus AreneOS lets you point at objects outside your car and get info

TOKYO — Concept cars range from basically ready-to-produce to total fantasy. Lexus brought two concepts to the Japan Mobility Show that fell somewhere in the middle, with each closer to one end. The LF-ZC was more clearly previewing an upcoming model, whereas the LF-ZL was farther out, somewhere between fantasy and production. But two of its features seem closer than we thought. We already talked about the various simulations of old cars, but the other feature is the «Interactive Reality in Motion» feature of the future AreneOS Lexus is working on. We got to ride in a prototype with the system, and while it's very early in development, it presents some interesting possibilities.

What «Interactive Reality in Motion» basically lets you do is point at things outside the window of the car, and have the car give you information and more. So if you're driving past a restaurant, you can point at it, and ask for information. The car can hypothetically tell you what it is, what the ratings and hours are, and even potentially help you put in a reservation. 

Lexus devs demonstrated these features on a test course set up in a parking lot at a Toyota test center outside Nagoya. And it did generally what Lexus says it will. Whether you're in the driver or passenger seat, you can point out the window, say the wake word or phrase, and it will identify the point of interest.

There are plenty of caveats to this, as Lexus has clearly said, this is a very early prototype. The objects standing in for businesses weren't sandwiched between a bunch of other ones that could be identified instead. We were also going very slowly. And the Lexus folks admitted that a previous group experienced some significant technical difficulties. My group also ran into a couple of more minor hiccups like the sensors getting mixed up with where someone was pointing or getting tripped up by slightly off questions or something being asked too quickly.

With all that said, it still worked pretty well for an early prototype. There has been some good thought put into the interface, too. For instance, the developers said they had very clear reasons for the pointing as the interface. It's obviously intuitive for