In 2004, a group of physicists at New York’s Rochester University published a paper about what they called “light’s most exotic trick yet”. They managed to send a pulse of light through a specially-doped optic fibre, such that the crest of the pulse technically travelled faster than lightspeed. An amazing thing happened – the crest actually exited the fibre before it entered it, splitting and travelling backwards.
Fortunately, when road vehicles travel in reverse, it doesn’t require quite as much playing with the laws of physics. But that’s not to say that it’s an easy job. A wide variety of conditions – from busy roads to dark nights – can make reversing and parallel parking a nightmare. That’s why the reversing camera is the perfect solution.
A rear vision camera allows you to look behind you without relying on mirrors – which have a frustrating tendency to distort distances. It will show you the road behind your vehicle on a little screen, with an inbuilt distance scale to help you keep track of how far away obstacles are. It also works at night, where mirrors will either be pitch black or blindingly bright as they catch a reflection of someone else’s headlights.
It’s difficult to get a good view while reversing, so a reversing camera kit is a much-needed help. No more will you have to mess around with head checks and switching from the rear vision mirror to the wing mirror, to glancing over first one shoulder, then the other, and back again. Now you can take in everything with the help of the camera, and have a far less stressful reversing experience. Then, once you’ve finally finished pulling out of your driveway, you can relax and begin your journey for real.
