Why Backup Cameras Isn’t Perfect and How to Deal With?

Backup camera systems are an extremely valuable technology, but it’s very important to recognize their limits as a standalone solution for object detection.

Considering that 94 percent of new cars in the USA marketplace these days have backup cameras, that has a good deal of backward visibility gained. But national data indicates that this passive technology (engineering which needs driver/operator participation) as a standalone security solution has not appreciably diminished back-over incidences. Although between 2008 and 2011 backup cameras over dropped from 32% to 68 percent in brand new automobiles sold, the decrease in back-over episodes was less than 8%.

In spite of backup detectors, “drivers still do not look around their automobiles when in reverse and sometimes get distracted by numerous items because their automobiles roll backward,” clarifies Janette Fennell, president and creator of automobile security nonprofit KidsAndCars.org. Back-up cameras display graphics on a screen, and drivers may get overly reliant on the display rather than using their rearview mirrors and windows.

What is more, environmental ailments put in the way. Snow, rain, and even sunlight glare can radically impair camera visibility in the street, since most drivers using backup cameras have undergone firsthand.

In heavy duty industries, environmental problems play a much larger role. Dirt or sand out of a worksite can easily impair a camera lens, so making the machine useless until disinfected. Confined or darkened worksites, together with the size of heavy duty equipment significantly raises the risk connected with blind zones across those vehicles.

While backup cameras do raise visibility at a car’s blind zone, the tech is still passive, putting each the duty on the gear operator to find things and individuals on the other side of the machine before the accident occurs.

Combining vision systems with active security systems, for example object detection radar, supply equipment operators with busy alerts (alarms that do not need their participation) so they could avoid possible collisions with individuals or property.

Camera with radar

Or latest 3D surround view system that consists of four video cameras mounted in the front, in the back, and on the sides of the vehicle as well as a special processing unit that merges the video feed from all four cameras into a single panoramic image. Everything that happens around the car is displayed on the monitor in real time and in “plan view” without any blind spots.

Camera/monitor systems are getting to be commonplace in heavy duty and Public Transit Industries, but they are not sufficient to significantly lessen the danger connected with blind spots. Many forward believing OEMs are taking measures to incorporate active systems designed especially for heavy-duty gear operations, which is valuable in years to come. But most fleets today need aftermarket applications so as to maximize the capacity of protected operations of the gear. That isn’t without price, but the consequent increase in security and decrease in expensive mishaps, much outweighs the investment.