With stricter safety standards, most modern cars today come with thick A-pillars. While it may be integral to a stiffer body and perhaps even help you survive a roll with thick pillars supporting the roof, it can be a real pain in our rear end to see out off. I’m sure the more observant Perodua Myvi owners can relate to this.
Toyota is looking to address this problem by making the A-pillar appear invisible through complex system of mirrors to improve the driver’s line of sight through the A-pillars. Basically the patent, which was only just published despite being filed in 2016, explains that a series of carefully-placed mirrors will reflect what’s on the outside of the vehicle, to appear inside – making it seem like the A-pillar is invisible.
This rather ingenious solution, regardless of the complex execution, could be the way forward if Toyota can get around it and put it into production as it would eliminate the need to attach a camera on the outside of the A-pillar and reflect it onto a screen on the inside.
As cool as this mechanism sounds, whether or not it will even be shown on a prototype remains to be seen but Toyota’s patent to isn’t the first in an attempt to eliminate the pesky, obstructive, thick A-pillars. More recently, Jaguar Land Rover presented the concept of using video cameras for detection of pedestrians hidden from the driver’s line of sight by the A-pillars and projecting them on a live display making it seem like the driver is seeing through the A-pillars.
