h a l f b a k e r y"Bun is such a sad word, is it not?" -- Watt, "Waiting for Godot"
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Large, durable screens mounted on the rear surface of a large vehicle , wired to cameras on the front. Scaled as closely as possible to the following vehicle's point of view, they would have a much better idea of what's going on ahead of the truck. This, of course, does not replace the wisdom of a proper
following distance, but I think most 'drivers' would be more comfortable with 'transparent' trucks.
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Then of course, you'd have jokers such as myself, who would play videos taken from sports cars racing down mountain roads. |
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And soon selling advertising would take hold, and we'd have a whole new set of distractions. |
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and... a creative and devious trucker could hijack the display for all sorts of silliness. hehehe |
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'Sir, perhaps you could explain to me why you drove into the back of a lorry at 130mph.' |
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'But officer, all I could see ahead of me was a clear road.' |
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'Yes sir, that's because the lorry in front of you had a clear road.' |
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Am I alone in thinking that effectively attempting to make large lumps of steel travelling at high speed invisible might not make the roads rather more dangerous? |
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I propose to use the screens to project some sort of representation chosen by the driver. I personally would like to see a pirate ship travelling at 60mph down a motorway, followed by three dinosaurs, a giant racing tortoise and a portrait of the Queen. |
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:-) moomintroll. (Can we have a system
for bunning annotations?) |
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...and then I edited it. Damn. :-) |
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Well, you'll just have to edit it back in,
then :-) |
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Yeah, it'd be a great outlet for a trucker's creativity, but I don't believe you could make the truck transparent enough to actually believe it isn't there... besides, that's why we have SEP fields! :) (for the record... a bun for moomintroll) |
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What's in it for the truckers? |
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I personally don't mind following trucks much; they make driving cheaper for me. Drafting can be good. Although the ones traveling with no trailer can seriously mess with your aero and therefore your stability, so watch out. The trailers seem to smooth things out a bit. |
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If trucks and their trailers had more of an open door policy to other drivers on the road, they could have little ramps and a conveyor belt for you to ride piggyback on. A little coffee shop and video store in the toe of the trailer would be less stressing than concentrating on staying in someone's backdraft bubble. |
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Our eyes met from across the road, through the truck. |
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[mens] Sometimes, if drafting behind one of the family haulers that has a DVD player inside, it's possible to be somewhat entertained by the playing movie. At least, until I get a headache from trying to focus too far out. Those screens are tiny and I'm not trying to get a ticket for tailgating, you know. |
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I used to drive 'em, I've driven behind 'em, and those big flat doors made a primo draft shadow. If you are at all attentive there's no problem stopping, either, because your car will certainly stop shorter than the truck, but beware of those tires. If one blows it can wreck your car. |
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A proximity sensor on the truck can activate a
somewhat small flashing sign. (yet big enough to catch
attention). |
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"Objects in the screen might be invisible" |
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Or a better idea yet: the screen can be switched off
or showing something else all the time, so it is
visible. There can be a standardized infra red remote
control on every vehicle that can control the screen
of the truck in front. |
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This has so many advantages. |
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2) the guy behind the truck can choose what he wants
to see |
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3) if the guy in the vehicle behind chooses to watch
the road ahead, it can signal the driver of the truck
of a potential overtake. Or probably there can be a
seperate button to even signal the driver of the
truck. In either case the truck driver can even
respond back, the response being show on the screen
"clear" or "not clear". |
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4) the truck driver can even choose to display his
waypoints and the map. Also his position if he has a
GPS device. |
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The only problem I see here is when travelling with
the family, if the truck driver selects some obscene
images. |
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The number of buttons on the remote (can be in the
stearing wheel) can be kept down to a minimum of 3 or
4. |
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1) "Show road ahead" cum power button. "Show road
ahead" is the default mode when you switch on.
Pressing this when it's already switched on will
switch it off. |
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2) "Mode change" button(s). This can be one or two
buttons, for "mode up and mode down". If there is only
one button, you will have to cycle through the modes. |
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Modes other than "Show road ahead" can be anything
the driver sets. "Infra red" , "GPS overlay", "My
dashboard" showing his speed and other stuff like
playlist, etc. |
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The truck driver can have a small screen for himself showing
what is going on behind his back ;-). |
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I wonder if I should have made this into another idea
rather than an anno. |
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The truck could also warn if the vehicle behind it is
driving too close to the truck. "You are driving too close to the truck. Please back off." |
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There could be advertisements placed within the image. |
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You might think of generalizing this idea. If digital projectors get cheap enough you could have lots of applications for virtual windows. |
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