Slashdot Mirror
Jaguar and Land Rover Just Created Transparent Pillars For Cars
cartechboy writes We've all been there, driving down a city street and we miss that pedestrian or bicycle because they are in our blind spot. Not the blind spot behind us, but covered up by the A-pillar on your vehicle. This is a growing concern as pillars and cars in general bulk up to meet new, ever stricter safety standards. Now Jaguar and Land Rover might have come up with a solution that eliminates the risk: transparent pillars. Imagine having zero blinds spots as you pull up to that intersection. No concerns about not seeing something or someone that's hidden by that large A-pillar. The technology is called 360 Virtual Urban Windscreen and it provides a 360-degree view out of the vehicle. How does it work? Essentially, a screen embedded in the surface of each pillar inside the car relays a live video feed from cameras covering the angles outside the car. To avoid overloading the driver the screens are off in default mode, and are only activated automatically when the driver uses a turn signal or checks over their head to switch lanes. While there's zero mention of when this tech will go into production, it's clear, this is the future and it's crazy.
Didn't Volvo prototype something like this a while back with some transparent triangles embedded in the frame?
TomB
"You can't take the sky from me..."
Not transparent... but "augmented".
(misleading title, sloppy journalistic work... as always)
Tata Motors owns both Jaguar and Land Rover, so Tata Motors has invented.. or Jaguar and Land Rover, divisions of Tata Motors
Harrison's Postulate - "For every action there is an equal and opposite criticism"
Unless there is something particularly distracting about them....like a perceptable lag, then I don't see how being able to see more of whats around you can be overload. I am already used to looking at a scene that includes the sky, trees, and a whole mess of information beyond what I strictly need....hell, half the road is generally irrelevant as long as everybody is doing their job.
OTOH at night, screens emit light, so what it will do is light up the inside of the car making occupants more visible than they would be during the day, and possibly more visible than the pedestrian outside the car, I almost wonder if more accidents wont be saved by calling up the attention of pedestrians to the car than the other way around.
"I opened my eyes, and everything went dark again"
Just how stupid will people have to become before they are not allowed to drive? Can't be bothered to turn your head or use your mirrors? We have sensors for that. Can't be bothered to maintain a safe distance from the vehicle in front of you? We have a beeping alarm for that. Can't be bothered to learn good driving habits and drive safely? We got you covered. MABYE SOME PEOPLE SHOULDN'T BE DRIVING AT ALL.
If you watch the video in TFA, when the driver turns right at an intersection, the windscreen wipers come on (even though it is not raining). This is a major indication that the driver did not know on what side of the steering column the control for the indicator lights was. Given that he is turning right I bet that for that car the indicator light controls are on the left of the column.
I know all about this as I have done it so many times myself when changing different brands of cars.
I am Slashdot. Are you Slashdot as well?
To avoid overloading the driver the screens are off in default mode, and are only activated automatically when the driver uses a turn signal or checks over their head to switch lanes.
As drivers in LA never use their turn signals or turn their head to check their blind spot, these miraculous "transparent pillars" (which aren't transparent, go figure) will never be used...
Oh, boy. Two more things to go wrong in the vehicle. Reliability, smileability. The driver could just pay attention better and shift their head slightly... Oh, wait, that would be too easy and too low tech.
Describing a concept, and making a fake CGI video of how it might work, does not mean they have "created it". They haven't even revealed where this is at in the development cycle, and the video is very clearly pure CGI. (for one thing, nothing on these augmented displays will look right except from the driver's perspective, which will be annoying for passengers, and the camera does not show the driver's perspective in this video).
With the "B column" (the column between the front and back door), why should I have to turn my head >90 degrees to see an oddly shaped screen that shows me what is only right behind the column? When I signal how about show me EVERYTHING to that side of the vehicle on a screen that's, um, like right in front of me so I don't have to take me eyes off the road or crane my neck?
Better known as 318230.
And not in the way you think. I adjusted my mirrors so I have minimal to no blind spots in the back... but in every sedan I've ever driven, at 6'0" tall my eyes are exactly at the level of the rearview mirror, which means when I pull up to an intersection, I cannot see any cars coming from my right because the mirror is directly in my line of sight.
Why doesn't anyone make a rear-view mirror where you don't have to be 5'2" or shorter for it not to block your vision?
... That's the ticket, laddie.
Another thing to break and cost thousands to repair.
They're smart enough to make transparent pillars but - BUT - THEY PUT THE STEERING WHEEL ON THE WRONG SIDE OF THE CAR!!!!
Just, wow.
I don't even want to get into the thing about their driver going down the wrong side of the street.
Do you have ESP?
Here's a better idea - make the A-pillar (as viewed from the drivers position) no wider than the distance between the center of your eyes. This prevents the pillar from blocking your vision, and no electronics are needed.
Place nail here >+
When I'm driving, I'm usually make small movements with my head. A static, non-head-tracking display may well be more distracting, and probably more dangerous, than the original blind spot.
Or we could all just drive a Fiat Multipla and avoid those pesky vertical A-pillars to begin with.
The summary mentions the screens activating when a driver "checks over their head to switch lanes." Are new Jaguars and Rovers able to leap up or fly or something? I don't understand how or why you might check over your head to begin with, and especially in the context of making a lane change.
This is a hacked account, for which the owner can not be held responsible.
Essentially, a screen embedded in the surface of each pillar inside the car relays a live video feed from cameras covering the angles outside the car.
More crap to break
So there is a camera on the inside, to detect when I turn my head? Like when I'm at a stop light and turn to the passenger?
If you can do it for the A pillars, why have windows at all? Cameras all around!
This is cool but why is he driving on the wrong side of the road? They should fix that first.
I was going to ask how they deal with parallax and perspective: the need to account for the position of the driver's head so the the projected image properly lines up with the scene beyond. But the images in TFA make it clear: they haven't. This is a mock up. Nothing has been created, and Jaguar - Land Rover hasn't the faintest idea how to make it work for real.
Wouldn't it have to be - and stay - perfectly aligned for this to work? And perfectly adjusted to the driver?
Cars take a lot of punishment ... it's one thing for a headlight to be knocked a little out of alignment, but a video screen designed to make it look like the thing it is mounted on is invisible would require cameras to stay in near perfect alignment.
Not at dealerships. Last time I went to a new car dealer, I found the 2-year old like-new certified pre-owned car at 90% of the MSRP. Sure, I could have looked in the classifieds, but I haven't found the prices drop as fast as people assert.
Many people assert that you have an increased chance of a lemon. If you have a lemon, are you more likely to sell it when it's showing no problems, or keep it? So, lemons would be disproportionately for sale. If you disagree, what part do you disagree with?
Learn to love Alaska
nothing on these augmented displays will look right except from the driver's perspective
And only from one head position!
Every time some concept car âoeinventsâ video-cameras-instead-of-mirrors, I wonder whether it's occurred to anyone that mirrors show a different view depending on the position of the viewer. Is that so fundamental that we just forget it entirely?
In five years we won't be driving ourselves any more, but an on board computer will.
I bought a 2014 Honda Accord a few months ago. It has a camera in the trunk lid, that gives an image of what is in back of the car on the center panel display when the transmission is in reverse. When you turn on the right turn signal a camera in the right hand mirror housing displays an image of the right side of the car and the adjacent space. There is no such camera on the left side. I assume this is because they don't want drivers moving left to look to their right towards the center panel display.
I believe that many current model cars have similar cameras and displays.
A 360 display would be a step further in the evolution of these displays. But, I am not sure they are totally necessary. Vision forward and within the front 180 degrees is really not much of a problem. The A pillars are small and it is easy to look around them with very small head movements. Only the areas to the side and back and below the trunk lid are obscured. The back up and right turn cameras cover those areas, the only real blind spot is to the left and back.
BTW: Car talk has a detailed explanation of how to position your side mirrors to minimize your blind spots.
In the land of the blind, the one-eyed man is king.
Such a waste of money.
This will not make it onto the roads: overly complex.
The money would be better spent on actual transparent material.
If we could manufacture a material as transparent as glass or plastic, with similar properties as steel, they would make excellent pillars.
Bram Stolk http://stolk.org/tlctc/
This could be nausea inducing if they don't know exactly where someone is looking from. What if the driver turns his head but is looking in the rear view mirror? Can the rear posts figure out that they need to project an image to the mirror and back the the driver's eyes? Do these displays look bewildering to passengers who might incorrectly warn the driver? "Look out!" It might be better to figure out how to design hollowed posts with honeycomb designs that sacrifice safety for err.. safety.
I think Jaguar solved the problem of bild spots on their cari in 1964
http://www.sportscardigest.com/wp-content/uploads/1964-jaguar-xke-series-1.jpg
With style, I must add.
Already BMW uses two cameras under the wing mirrors and one rear facing camera to create a "top view" displayed in the console. It helps in parking. It would not be too much to use the same mirror cams to face rear wards at higher than parking speeds, and create a "front view" for display. Or use one or two more side facing cameras to create a clear picture of cars in the blind spot in the console.
sed -e 's/Chuck Norris/Rajnikant/g' joke > fact
I'm the future, and this is crazy,
so here's my number, call me maybe...
Jaguar and LandRover show of amature video masking in tacky engineer-made product video.
'nuff said.
We suffer more in our imagination than in reality. - Seneca
I have a baby-seat fitted in the back seat on the right side. It gives me a huge blind spot when changing lanes or turning right.
I guess it can be made transparent too, but what about the baby sitting in the chair? Or other passengers in general?
Yes, making the pillars transparent (or removing the m completely) will make it better, but as long as other people are non-transparent (and as long as drivers never turn their heads!) there's always going to be blind spots.
/ The Arrow
"How lovely you are. So lovely in my straightjacket..." - Nny
and why would it only turn on if you look directly? contrary to the resolution, the peripheral awareness is quite high and useful. it's clearly a not very well thought through mockup. the silly flow me car, potentially obscuring a child or at least a bit of view with its opaque label is another proof of that.
You appear to have copied and pasted the entire internet into your post.
To have a right to do a thing is not at all the same as to be right in doing it
I don't understand why people buy new cars. Buy one that's 1 year old for 30% less and still get "new car insurance" since it's less than five years old. I guess it's the fanbois that like the New Shiny and just have to have it now.
New cars don't smell of other people's bottoms.
To have a right to do a thing is not at all the same as to be right in doing it
its far too long, i wouldn't even read it if it was interesting
"The hands that help are better far than lips that pray." - Robert Ingersoll (1833-1899)
What about the transparent aluminium?
I apologize for the lack of a signature.
I don't understand why people buy new cars. Buy one that's 1 year old for 30% less and still get "new car insurance" since it's less than five years old. I guess it's the fanbois that like the New Shiny and just have to have it now.
Depends on where you live. In the Dallas area, used cars are only a couple of thousand less than new. It's really frustrating and makes you wonder why anyone would buy used. If you're willing to drive up to Oklahoma and spend some time looking around, you can get cars for 30% off or more, but that can be a hassle and a lot tougher to deal with if you get a lemon.
Well, you can get a spacer for some vehicles, it can be a challenge to retain ABS but it is possible.
"You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
Does anyone know why this isn't an option?
Well, you can get a spacer for some vehicles, it can be a challenge to retain ABS but it is possible.
I meant SRS, I don't know how ABS came out
"You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
Two year old cars could be coming off a lease, or former rentals. If anything the lemons will have had a lot of kinks worked out by then under the original warranty. If you live in a state with used car lemon laws, you'll just get a lot of free service in the event of any "surprises". And perhaps that's why those used cars are only 90% MSRP at the dealer - they are accounting for the need to service a used car with a like new warranty.
For one reason, and one reason alone: "only activated automatically when the driver uses a turn signal".
Used car dealers have a simple business model. Charge double what it's worth then gouge the chumps in financing.
John McAfee 'It was like that time I hired that Bangkok prostitute; to do my taxes, while I fucked my accountant'