One of the riskiest and most lethal maneuvers that a driver can perform on the road is overtaking on the road. This is especially true when the vehicle being passed is a truck, which increases the distance needed to complete the maneuver. In an effort to reduce the number of accidents, the people at Samsung took to Argentine roads to evaluate its Safety Truck concept, which installs a “digital window” on the back of the truck.
The scourge of traffic accidents strikes on a global scale. As the number of vehicles, personal transportation options (including bicycles) and pedestrians increases, the risk rises considerably. Needless to say, each country calculates its own statistics, but according to Samsung, the situation in Argentina is quite serious: Almost one person dies per hour, and 80 percent of fatalities occur on the roads. Most accidents happen when overtaking another vehicle. When it comes to a car or a pickup truck, the risk is statistically lower because of extra visibility, but if the vehicle to overtake is a truck or a long-distance bus, well... there aren't many options. To this we must add weather conditions like rain, fog, or simply traveling at night.
How Safety Truck Works
Samsung's proposal to reduce accidents is Safety Truck. The system consists of a wireless camera on the front of the truck, which transmits its signal in real time to a wall made up of four screens protected from the elements, located on the back of the trailer (read trailer or semi-trailer). This creates a kind of “digital window” through which a driver can see when it is safe to overtake. Safety Truck is a campaign organized by the agencies Leo Burnett and Ingemática, and the pilot test included a total of six trucks traveling on Argentine roads. The system works perfectly at night, not only because of the added lights on the truck, but also because of the night vision mode on the camera.
Questions and Concerns
There is no doubt that Safety Truck is a good idea, but personally I have two doubts. The first points to the location of the camera. I think it would be better to place the lens a bit higher, at a level close to that of the truck driver. The second doubt is nothing other than its cost. Flat screens are particularly expensive in the Argentine market, a detail that would affect its adoption. Anyway, Safety Truck is not a “local” solution, so to speak. Heavy vehicles are everywhere, and if it can save lives, welcome.
