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Science & Technology
14-year-old solved the problem of blind spots with award-winning science fair project
2019-11-11
[MYSANANTONIO] Over 840,000 of the car crashes that occur on U.S. roadways each year can be traced back to a problem area with which all drivers have experience: the blind spots caused by the A-frame of a car's structure.

Despite over a century of constant improvements to automobile, there's still no perfect fix for blind spots that the auto industry has uniformly accepted. But that might be about to change thanks to an ingenious solution from an unlikely engineering hero who can't even drive.

Alaina Gassler, 14, of West Grove, Pennsylvania, has designed a technology that makes the A-frame pillars of a car "see-through" by using projectors that cast images of what's really behind them onto their surfaces.
Posted by:Fred

#9  I use a panoramic mirror for rear view, since I can't turn my head very much. Works nicely for me. But I do like the idea of seeing through the pillar. It looks neat.
Posted by: Fred   2019-11-11 18:42  

#8  Even if we didn't have high tech solutions, it would seem to me that the ceiling supports could be made far thinner with stronger materials if this was a serious problem, or even move the supports forward so that they don't have issues with the coverage of the side-view mirrors.
Posted by: ruprecht   2019-11-11 14:12  

#7  That's exactly what happened to me last week. I'm passing on the right and at the precise moment when my front bumper was even with her rear door, when she decides to switch into my lane without using her blinkers (natch). I must have missed her car (or she missing my car) by 1/2 an inch.

Yes, she was a young blonde - why do you ask?
Posted by: Raj   2019-11-11 14:02  

#6  A-Frame refers to front suspension parts; really kind of hard to steer if you are down there, bouncing off the pavement; A-Piller, B-Piller, ect are the norms for referrting to the structural piese that keep the roof up off the belt line..... ( later stated in the pice, sort of)
Posted by: USN, Ret.   2019-11-11 13:35  

#5  It's been solved before. I have it on my new car. This is a better mousetrap.
Posted by: Gloria   2019-11-11 10:48  

#4  Yeah, I remember some story about a kid who invented a clock...
Posted by: M. Murcek   2019-11-11 07:01  

#3  Typical crap journalism. This issue already been "solved" many times in the past.
Posted by: Spanky Whuter1088   2019-11-11 04:46  

#2  Things obscured by the A-pillar can hit you ? I bet you have to be yakking away to passengers or high to do that. Has anybody here suffered this kind of accident ?

This tech can be useful for pillboxes, shooter hides and bunkers. And tanks. Why not tanks.
Posted by: Dron66046   2019-11-11 04:06  

#1  Smart kid. Integrate it with a HUD, bring in a "less ethnic" partner, and this could be a runaway hit with the Mohammedan market.
Posted by: Spats tse Tung2390   2019-11-11 03:17  

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