The Curious History of Jaywalking

[berkeman]

My biggest gripe about blind spots is the nicely padded, and large, windshield pillars these days. Those pillars completely block seeing pedestrians waiting to cross when the signal turns Green; then we almost meet when I make a left turn.

Yeah, those are the A-pillars that I mentioned earlier in the thread. It turns out that there have been several attempts to mitigate that hazard while still maintaining the structural integrity of the A-pillar design. It looks like GM has filed a patent application for a new design with transparent A-pillars that are still structurally strong:

GM Patents See-Through Windshield Pillars for Better Visibility​

General Motors is working on a new perspective with a new pillar patent design.​

Justin Westbrook Mar 14, 2022

A new patent filing shows General Motors is developing a new design many of us have long pondered about: a car with transparent A-pillars that expand your field of view out of the windshield. GM's filing claims the design is intended mostly to improve driver awareness during left-handed turns, without jeopardizing the safety of the vehicle's crash structure.

The A-pillar, which is the support beam on either side of the windshield, has gone pretty much unchanged in its purpose for decades, both to stop the roof from caving in on the occupants in the event of a rollover crash while also offering a pathway for frontal crash forces to be distributed up and down around the front-seat passengers via the floor rails and roof structure. The only downside is the pillar's location, which is directly in the line of sight between the driver and the road, hence the desire for a new solution.

With the latest advancements in material technology, many of us have wondered if it would be possible to keep the A-pillar and all of its structural importance, and simply make it out of a transparent material. Some automakers have attempted to achieve pillar-windows in the past. The old Buick Century had a lovely windshield that wrapped its corners to meet the door, though it lacked much safety, considering there was virtually no A-pillar.

Some modern cars, like the Renault Espace and Grand Scenic, have massive dashboard windows in front of the doors that's close to the same design. A few years ago, Continental announced a camera-and-screen setup that projected an exterior image onto a screen attached to the A-pillar. Jag had a transparent pillar patent back in 2014, Toyota had a similar concept back in 2017 that involved trick mirrors, and now it looks like the engineers at General Motors may be finally giving truly transparent pillars a serious shot.

https://www.motortrend.com/news/general-motors-a-pillar-patent-gm-car-design/

 

[Mark44]

(So, if you cross anywhere you want and have an encounter with a vehicle you're in trouble.)

Or as a friend said to me many years ago, "God favors the swift."

I do this, and my neck is soon to start its 7th decade.

Youngster...

 

[DaveC426913]

Didn’t say it wasn’t. I listed places where it is illegal.

I didn't say you said it wasn't.