Cars should ideally have wraparound windows that provide a complete 360-degrees of visibility for the driver.
Unfortunately, vehicles tend to need extra strength to protect the occupants -hence the glass windows will be interrupted by steel (or carbon fibre) pillars.
Even the narrowest structural members can occlude or disguise significant moving objects, such as farm animals, cyclists or motorbikes.
Today’s invention is roof pillars for cars which take a leaf out of the civil engineers’ handbook.
Pillars with circular apertures and external glazing could not only look good and retain strength but provide enough extra peripheral visual information to allow a driver to spot an approaching cyclist in time to brake and thus avoid a collision.
Great idea, WDITOT 🙂
The larger circular windows are ideal to be equipped with Fresnel lenses giving more sight,
The smaller ones on top can be used for small cameras and or distance detectors?
Thanks again Rob…sometimes the best ideas are the simplest…I’m currently trying to sell some simple ideas to car manufacturers. I particularly like your idea of *enhanced* vision via these portholes. It seems that we only really perceive things we expect to see…so if we pull out after looking for approaching cars, we may not register a motorcycle. If all vehicles had an emitter on the front, there would be fewer accidents…we can do it for low-speed parking after all.
Cheers,
p
See also this: http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2013/07/130719112134.htm
I’m pretty sure that drivers in the future, assuming we aren’t all driven by robots, will have to wear eye trackers for insurace reasons (see the video at the bottom of this page) http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2013/07/peacock/
If you are looking in the wrong place before a collision occurs you will either be alerted or, more likely, prosecuted.