What if you could virtually see through a large semi truck that was in front of you — but in order to do it, you had to watch four large TVs that were mounted to the back of the truck? Do you think such a construct would be helpful or a hindrance to drivers?
Samsung recently posed this question to the driving public. They built a semi truck that had a forward-facing video camera on the truck’s grill, and then linked the footage captured by that camera to four televisions that were mounted on the back of the truck, facing out towards cars that were following the truck.
This allowed drivers behind the truck to see what the truck driver was seeing. As a result, they could, in theory, more accurately gauge when it was safe to pass the truck on a two-lane road or have a better idea of what traffic is like in front of the truck.
The truck has since been decommissioned, but it has certainly raised an interesting debate. Would such a vehicle actually improve safety? Or would those televisions only distract drivers even more? And what about the quality of the video? Would the televisions distort a driver’s ability to accurately perceive how much space or time they had before traffic changed up ahead per the video?
It’s a fascinating topic, but one that ultimately boils the issue down to its most basic component: distractions and driving will always be around. We need to be as focused as we can be on the road when we are driving, otherwise, we risk being held liable for an accident.
Source: CBS News, “Could Samsung’s ‘see-through’ safety semi-truck prevent accidents?,” Amy Schupak, June 23, 2015