Toyota has Patented a new Cloaking Device to Make Car Pillars Appear Transparent
No more cranking your neck to see around your A-pillars in your vehicle as Toyota has Patented a new Cloaking Device to Make Car Pillars Appear Transparent.
As we all know, many new cars have big, chunky pillars that make rollover safety better but with the drawback that it can make visibility worse.
Toyota feel they have figured out a way to keep the safety benefit of big pillars while making driver visibility better than ever by creating see-through transparent pillars.
A cloaking device might sound like an unsafe thing to use on a car, but the “apparatuses and methods for making an object appear transparent” that Toyota just patented could make cars safer by turning parts of them appear invisible.
It doesn’t involve cameras or magic, just a lot of mirrors. Cleverly placed mirrors can bend light around an object making it visible from the other side. So you’re not really seeing through the pillars, you’re seeing around them.
This use of mirrors would make it a much cheaper option than adding more cameras and screens all over the vehicle.
The patent was filed with the U.S. patent office by Toyota North America, so if Toyota does go forward with this technology, we can probably expect to see it in cars in the U.S.
For the optics nerds among us, you can check out the patent for yourself here and enjoy the many diagrams and long sentences explaining exactly how this cloaking device works.
If Toyota can make invisible A-pillars affordable and viable for the mass market, it could have a big impact on safety in the future.
Author
Justin Kavanagh
Justin Kavanagh is a recognised leader
in automotive intelligence and vehicle
data supply to the entire motor industry.
He has almost 20 years experience in
building systems from the ground up.
As the Managing Director of Vehicle
Management System, he understands the
need and importance of trustworthy and
reliable vehicle history and advice to
both the trade and the public.
Follow me on LinkedIn