Half a croissant, on a plate, with a sign in front of it saying '50c'
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"See-Thru" Truck Screens

 Large screen on trailer doors
  (+11, -3)(+11, -3)
(+11, -3) 		  [vote for,
against]

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.
—spacer, Feb 18 2005

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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.   

       And soon selling advertising would take hold, and we'd have a whole new set of distractions.
—normzone, Feb 18 2005
   

       and... a creative and devious trucker could hijack the display for all sorts of silliness. hehehe
—spacer, Feb 19 2005
   

       'Sir, perhaps you could explain to me why you drove into the back of a lorry at 130mph.'   

       'But officer, all I could see ahead of me was a clear road.'   

       'Yes sir, that's because the lorry in front of you had a clear road.'   

       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?   

       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.
—moomintroll, Feb 19 2005
   

       :-) moomintroll. (Can we have a system for bunning annotations?)
—Basepair, Feb 19 2005
   

       ...and then I edited it. Damn. :-)
—moomintroll, Feb 19 2005
   

       Well, you'll just have to edit it back in, then :-)
—Basepair, Feb 19 2005
   

       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)
—spacer, Feb 20 2005
   

       What's in it for the truckers?
—Basepair, Feb 20 2005
   

       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.
—tekym, Feb 20 2005
   

       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.
—mensmaximus, Feb 20 2005
   

       Our eyes met from across the road, through the truck.
—bristolz, Feb 20 2005
   

       [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.
—tekym, Feb 20 2005
   

       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.
—spacer, Feb 20 2005
   

       A proximity sensor on the truck can activate a somewhat small flashing sign. (yet big enough to catch attention).   

       "Objects in the screen might be invisible"   

       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.   

       This has so many advantages.   

       1) saves power.   

       2) the guy behind the truck can choose what he wants to see   

       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".   

       4) the truck driver can even choose to display his waypoints and the map. Also his position if he has a GPS device.   

       The only problem I see here is when travelling with the family, if the truck driver selects some obscene images.   

       The number of buttons on the remote (can be in the stearing wheel) can be kept down to a minimum of 3 or 4.   

       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.   

       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.   

       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.   

       3) "I want to over-take"   

       The truck driver can have a small screen for himself showing what is going on behind his back ;-).   

       I wonder if I should have made this into another idea rather than an anno.   

       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."
—kamathln, Nov 08 2008
   

       There could be advertisements placed within the image.   

       You might think of generalizing this idea. If digital projectors get cheap enough you could have lots of applications for virtual windows.
—talldave, Nov 08 2008
   


 

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