Phiar launches AI-powered AR navigation app in invite-only iPhone beta

Phiar, a Palo Alto-based startup that is using artificial intelligence and augmented reality to enhance vehicular navigation, is finally making its long-awaited AR driving app available for the first time -- albeit in a limited fashion. The company today announced the start of a private beta program for iPhone users, and plans to expand the program to Android devices later in 2020. Founded by experts in computer vision and machine learning, Phiar spent 2018 and 2019 raising funds and developing its mobile app, which is designed to serve as an augmented navigational head-up display (HUD) that sits on a car's dashboard. Instead of filling a phone's screen with a 2D or 3D map, the app can superimpose guidance lines, arrows, and icons atop live camera feeds of streets. Phiar notes that the app automatically picks visible AR overlays by looking at the road, lighting, weather, and objects present in the live video, drawing pathways using either lines or higher contrast patterns that will be more visible as you drive.