Have you ever tried overtaking heavy vehicles including semi trailers and trucks in roads and freeways? While most drivers would rather wait and trail behind these small-moving truck types, there are some drivers who are on a rush, or trying desperately to drive faster to reach an appointment or just get to the destination on time. Unfortunately, sharing the roads with heavy vehicles can be frustrating, highly stressful and even dangerous. Common truck types that are regularly seen on roads like a semi-trailer that measures roughly 19 meters long, with speed limit at just below 100 km/hour can test the patience of drivers and commuters alike. The truck’s rear trailer can block the driver’s vision, and in some cases, the constant swaying of the rear trailer from left to right can render drivers impatient, thus allowing them to make rash decisions like overtaking the trucks without a clear view of the roads ahead. When these things happen, these can put the safety of everyone on the line. If you are one of those drivers who want to overtake these trucks, but want to see the road ahead first for safety, then pay attention to the latest technology and innovation in the market- ‘Samsung’s Safety Truck’.
Samsung’s Safety Truck is the company’s contribution in an emerging movement where tech firms are trying their hands in the automotive sector. If Google has its self-driving cars, Samsung focuses on promoting safety on the road. The company has set its sights on making semi-trailers safer by customizing its design by incorporating a camera and TV monitors that will give drivers from the back real-time view of what’s ahead of the road. With TV monitors constantly playing the actual road conditions of what’s ahead, sharing the roads with semi-trailers is made less risky.
In a Samsung blog post, the addition of real-time cameras at the back of the truck will provide drivers at the back with necessary information on whether they should only trail the truck on the road, or there’s enough room on the road to safely overtake the truck. This means that safety will be improved on and off the road when Samsung’s Safety Truck is on the move.
How the Samsung’s Safety Truck Works
The truck tested by Samsung in Argentina makes use of a wireless camera that is fitted to the truck’s front-end, which is then linked to a video wall that’s attached at the rear end of the track. The video wall is composed of at least four monitors for convenient real-time viewing of road action. Thanks to the strategic placement of the video wall, drivers at the back are empowered and informed of road traffic and what’s happening in front of the truck, even during night time. The video wall features a night mode to ensure complete live feed of information even when it’s dark or raining. The technology and the actual placement of the video wall provides drivers with a clear and complete view of what lies ahead on the road, even if their service cars are trailing the truck. The information that they can get from watching the live feed can help them decide whether it’s time to overtake the truck, or it is wiser to wait for a few more minutes. This can also minimize the accidents associated with sudden brakes because a pedestrian suddenly crosses the road, or an animal made a dash towards the other end.
A Safer Technology Improved, and Reintroduced
This is not the first time that a transparent truck system that allows a safer sharing of the roads was made available to the general public. Samsung’s foray into smart and safe truck driving on the road can be likened to the safety innovation called ‘Transparentius’ that takes a bold and highly creative way to help promote safety and innovation on the roads. Well, the idea is simple- just connect a camera in front of the semi-trailer or truck, and simply project the images captured to the back of the semi-trailer. Thanks to this arrangement, the truck or semi-trailer becomes ‘transparent’ for the drivers and passengers at the pack, thus keeping them informed and empowered to take on the clear road ahead. The creative idea comes from Art Lebedev idea works, but there were some concerns regarding how the projection was made possible, or how glare was managed. But knowing how art works, what matter most is the idea that can eventually solve an age-old problem of safety on the road.
In Japan and other countries, there have been efforts to test the same technology. For example, Toyota also tried to test the technology on its Prius. Jaguar on the other hand is also planning to add a car feature that will provide the driver with a sweeping view of the road and its surroundings, thus addressing the common problems associated with blind spots.
The same technology is also being tested in next generation vehicles that will be introduced in the market. Called Vehicle-to-Vehicle Communication or V2V, this new car technology is also being tested to render select cars to become safer on the road. To project the information to the car’s rear end, a special network, 802.11p is used to transmit the information among cars. This technology helps make road information available including car position, speed, direction and relevant information that can help promote safety. This is one technology that’s been in the drawing board for years. Thanks to this technology, a driver will be provided with the information he needs to easily navigate traffic and avoid accidents that normally happen on the road. The use of technology empowers every driver, and provides the driver with an extra eye on the road so h can easily detect a speeding car. It helps boost driver confidence as it allows cars to anticipate walls, cars and even blind corners.
While the technology may seem like a sure-winner on and off the road, the technology is still in the drawing board for an important reason. The problem with this technology is that this will not reliably work during rush hour or in heavy traffic. During heavy traffic, the system can get loaded with information, and information thrown and shared by cars can get mixed up in the process. Also, there’s a risk of security breach that can undermine the network, and confuse the information received by drivers. Instead of getting the helpful information they need, drivers may get mixed signals and information that may put their safety on the line.
These limitations of the technology (and the automotive concept) didn’t stop Samsung from developing its own ‘transparent truck’ for use in public roads and highways. The result is the testing of the new safety Truck technology that has caused a stir in the industry. The Samsung Safety Truck has been tested in Argentina for a local client, and the company added that the truck is no longer operational.
It is also interesting to note the choice of the testing environment in Argentina. According to reports, road accident in Argentina is a serious concern, and according to authorities, there’s at least one person who dies from vehicular accident every hour. Sounds irresponsible and scary, right? Samsung hopes to join the conversations, and in the process promote a technology in the market.
So what’s next for Samsung and its own take on a safe truck? While the truck is no longer operational as announced online, it should be noted that the company has already confirmed that the technology actually works, and can become a reliable help on the road. According to reports, Samsung will push through with the planned testing of the technology and its use on trucks to ensure that it can comply with national and regulatory requirements. To ensure compliance, the South Korean global company is reportedly partnering with the government and other NGOs to ensure compliance and future mass adoption of the technology. And we just hope that Samsung doesn’t just end with a promotional video teaser of this technology, and the efforts don’t just end with the obligatory testing. We, the consumers and car drivers definitely welcome any new technology that can help prevent injuries and accidents on and off the road, a Safety Truck included.