Land Rover is known for its towing capacity and people who own the vehicle may not think twice before towing a horse trailer with it.
While the vehicle is more than capable of getting the job done, the problem that most drivers face is when they switch lanes on a highway. The huge horse trailer could completely block their vision on the sides and the back, making it impossible to change to a different lane. The people at Land Rover now have a unique solution. They have developed a special rearview mirror, which, when connected to a bunch of rear view cameras attached on the trailer transmits images to the driver.
By combining the images from all the rear cameras, the rearview mirror will create an image that will make the trailer look transparent, allowing you to easily know what’s going behind it when switching lanes. Land Rover has already created a “see through” technology for their Discovery vehicle which makes it easy to ride on tough terrains.
The concept was already displayed in a couple of movies, including the popular Bond flick ‘Die Another Day’, where cameras are fixed on all sides of a vehicle to project images that camouflage the actual car. A similar trick is what Land Rover is aiming to achieve with their cloaking device system for horse trailers.
While it is purely a conceptual idea at the moment, if it comes into vogue, it will help the drivers avoid blind spots and have better road awareness when towing trailers with their SUVs. The technologically advanced rearview mirror will give the driver a complete view of the rear of the trailer making it easy to switch lanes, slow down or get out of the highway. It will definitely help reduce accidents caused by blind spots.
In comparison, the Pro Trailer backup assist created by Ford is slick and reliable. A driver can fix sensors on all corners of the trailer and it will start sending data to the SUV, making it easy to navigate the trailer to the desired position. While Land Rover is yet to achieve such perfection, they are doing a good job of creating some impressive safety features.
Of late, cars and SUVs are receiving more technological upgrades than in terms of hardware, because people are so used to them like never before. Land Rover has to create more such nerdy ideas if they aim to beat luxury SUV manufacturers like Rolls Royce, Bentley and Aston Martin, among others.