IVECO, a world leader in road transportation since 1975 offering an extensive range of light, medium, and heavy commercial vehicles for road and off-road use, and HMDRIVE, an Italian startup developing next-generation human-vehicle interfaces powered by Augmented Reality (AR), have launched a joint pilot project aimed at enhancing safety and driver performance through the integration of AR-assisted driving solutions.
The new collaboration aims to explore how AR can redefine safety and efficiency in industrial driving. At its core lies HMDRIVE’s innovative AR system: a lightweight, head-mounted device communicating with the vehicle systems that projects real-time information such as alerts, trajectory guidance, and performance feedback directly into the driver’s field of view. Leveraging advanced spatial tracking algorithms, the AR visuals remain perfectly stable and context-aware, seamlessly aligned with both the vehicle’s movements and the surrounding environment. This technology enhances driver focus, situational awareness, and overall safety while reducing cognitive load and distraction.
Founded in Modena in 2022 as a spin-off of Politecnico di Milano and accelerated by the Motor Valley Accelerator, HMDRIVE is a deep-tech startup born from cutting-edge R&D in motorsport and automotive engineering. Leveraging experience gained in high-performance racing environments, the company develops next-generation human–vehicle interfaces powered by augmented reality and spatial-tracking technologies. Its solutions project real-time alerts, navigation cues, and performance insights directly into the driver’s field of view, enhancing safety, situational awareness, and overall driving efficiency. Today, HMDRIVE operates at the intersection of automotive engineering and digital intelligence, pushing the boundaries of smart mobility through innovation and academic excellence.
Over the past 12 months, Iveco Group and HMDRIVE have collaborated to integrate HMDRIVE’s proprietary augmented reality system into a commercial vehicle platform, validating a range of use cases focused on safety, ADAS visualization, and driving behaviour feedback. The system relies on a lightweight AR device connected to the vehicle’s network, capable of projecting real-time information - such as warnings, trajectory cues, and performance insights - directly into the driver’s field of view. Thanks to HMDRIVE’s spatial tracking algorithms, the visual content remains stable and precisely aligned with both the vehicle and the external environment. This enhances driver attention, reduces cognitive load, and opens new possibilities for intuitive human–vehicle interaction in professional driving contexts.
“The collaboration with HMDRIVE has been a great example of how open innovation can generate tangible value,” said Valerio Liga, Advanced SW & Digital Solutions Manager of Iveco Group. “They brought speed, creativity, and technological excellence to a project that could truly redefine how drivers interact with information on the road.”
Marco Centurioni, Co-Founder and CEO of HMDRIVE, added: “We’re deeply grateful to IVECO for believing in this vision from the beginning and for proving to be an agile, fast-moving partner capable of supporting us in translating our technology into impactful applications for industrial vehicles. This collaboration demonstrated how corporate experience and startup agility can meet to accelerate real change in mobility… and we believe it’s only the beginning”
Building on the success of the initial collaboration, IVECO and HMDRIVE are now exploring future developments aimed at bringing augmented reality closer to real-world applications in industrial mobility. The next steps will focus on enhancing the system’s integration and user experience, with the goal of turning innovation into a practical tool for safer and smarter driving.
