‘Transparent’ Samsung truck could make driving much safer

By now you’ve probably heard of Google’s self-driving car endeavor. The search engine giant is delivering reports on car accidents occurring on its vehicles. So far, it seems that accidents only occur when humans are in control – which seems to indicate that humans are their own worst enemy on the road.

The logic goes something like this: when humans are in manual control, things happen imperfectly, but computer-generated devices would outperform human-operated ones. Of course, this type of thinking is based upon the intelligence of the programmer. But, all things being equal, the driverless vehicle could perform better without human intervention and/or error.

Samsung may not have its own autonomous vehicles yet, but the company wants to keep the driver in the driver’s seat by introducing a “safety first” vehicle called the Samsung Safety Truck. The concept takes the traditional long-distance truck and adds some technology to aid both truck drivers and trailing traffic. The Samsung Safety Truck features a wireless front camera and four outdoor rear monitors to project the traffic conditions for both the truck driver and trailing drivers. This way, the truck driver can see what is ahead, and drivers behind can see what’s beside or ahead of the driver so as to plan quick decisions.
In addition, there’s a night mode, which you can see demonstrated in the video above. Often, vehicles behind a long-distance truck cannot see oncoming traffic because of their massive size. Should a driver decide to pass a truck because he or she thinks the coast is clear, with another individual pulling out at the same time, the result could be a head-on collision – and tragic for all parties involved.
Samsung says it has tested its Safety Truck with a local B2B client in Argentina, and notes that the test vehicle is no longer operational. Argentina is an ideal place to test the company’s new safety vehicle, seeing that, according to Samsung’s own promo video, nearly one person per hour dies in a traffic accident. While Samsung sees the vehicle’s usefulness in Argentina, we’d certainly hope the manufacturer brings these vehicles worldwide, including to the United States.
Samsung may already be well-known for its AMOLED smartphone and tablet displays, washers, dryers, refrigerators, and TVs. But given the implications for driver safety, the Safety Truck may well outpace them all.