Military night-vision system available for Hummers
posted June 15th 2005 6:19PM
We all know that visibility declines at night, making driving a lot more dangerous. But, until now, the most you
could typically do about it was to turn up your lights and go slowly. Now, however, a heat-sensing imaging system
originally developed for the military is available to consumers. Nightdriver uses a bumper-mounted camera and small
screen at the edge of the windshield to provide a realtime sensor image of the road ahead. Fittingly, it's currently
only available as an option on another military-developed item: the Hummer. While we wouldn't mind checking this out
with our car, we're still glad that the driver careening toward us in that massive Hummer may actually be able to use
this to avoid squashing us like a bug.
[Via Egopedia]
Either those are some poorly aimed headlights or the driver doesn't realize that when no one else is on the road and it's dark you can use your high beams.
But who said hummer owners were intelligent.
GM put this in their Cadillacs years ago
http://email.gmcanada.com/corpdb/cachq/pressrel.nsf/0/8f8b67f39a2b5d948525696d00711289?OpenDocument
I beleive Honda has also had it for some time.
At least... I've been seeing it in (Australian) Honda ad's for months now.
Either that, or they'll use the nightdriver to purposely splatter our bodies.
"Either those are some poorly aimed headlights or the driver doesn't realize that when no one else is on the road and it's dark you can use your high beams.
But who said hummer owners were intelligent."
In a lot of places it is illegal to use your high beams within city limits. I know it is everywhere in Canada.
jesus christ! we're all gonna be driving tanks by 2020!
you should only use your high beams if going fast enough that your stopping distance is beyond your view limit. ie at 50mph .. u usually do not need them .. at 90 .. well u might want them on. (depends on ur car / truck as well)
So, using this new product will also change the terrain too? Don't people at least try to get the same scenes when they produce these comparison shots? It's like the before and after diet pictures where one of them is totally facing another way.
Connor,
Laws concerning high beams aside, I still don't think that their example picture here is an accurate portrayal of what a driver sees at night when unassisted. Humans can see better at night than cameras can in the same spectrum of light.
Now I can do a driveby without ever turning on my car lights! Sweet....
hahahah
the video says "floats just below your line of site" "a thermal camera creates a small b&w image on a head up display or HUD"
if its below your line of sight
i dont think its a hud :)
maybe only i think its funny..
-leboff
sure you can see the people walking but if your driving fast in a hummer will you actually be able to stop for them?
(on an additional note these have been in other cars for several years now, looks ,like post #2 addressed that already though)
Visions of Arnold in T2... "I see everything."
By the way, did anybody realise that those images aren't the same image?
I thought this was a post about the old Atari game Night driver. Could someone post something about that....http://www.klov.com/game_detail.php?letter=N&game_id=8866
This function has been available for my volvo suv for 2 years now, works awesome...!!
Dear Retro (Post 13),
Yes, people noticed that the scene changed. In fact, David presented that observation in an apt and humorous way(in Post 7).
Re: Jun 15, 2005, 9:51 PM ET by retro
By the way, did anybody realise that those images aren't the same image?
All Hummers (H1) have a space next to the driver's side headlight for an IR illuminator. There are people who have installed their own aftermarket night vision systems on their civilian Hummers. This comes from the Hummer's military roots, where properly-equipped HMMWVs (Humvees) can switch to a 'black out' mode and entire convoys can travel in the dark.
-- Elias