CM VERDICT Anything that can help a driver detect a
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'hidden object' has to be a good thing, and we can see the potential for thermal imaging to become a strong safety tool, because, as our tests show. it can show you things the eye (and dipped headlights) can't normally detect.
Rod Collett, Volvo Trucks demonstration driver used the system on the open road and found it helpful, although the screen did prove as much of a distraction as it was a help.
How the information is presented to the driver is the key question, though, and we don't think the monitor is the answer. Where we do think thermal imaging can help, however, is if the display could be projected onto
the truck's windscreen, at eye level, allowing the driver to either look at it, or, more importantly 'through' it when travelling at normal road speeds, without having to take his eyes off the road ahead.
It's a work in progress, but as a famous landscape gardener once said "It has great capabilities..."