We all know that the sportier the car, the lower you sit, the smaller the windows are, the worse the visibility is. Well, racing cars are built to be 100% ‘sporty’ (though the term sporty doesn’t really do them justice, some times), and visibility is extremely poor.
In order for their drivers not to be unaware of what’s going on behind them, Audi have fitted their R18 racer, which is due to take part in the highly-anticipated Le Mans race on June 16th and 17th, with a rear view camera, connected to an AMOLED screen (similar to that used on smartphones) in order to give the drive a crystal-clear wide-field picture of what’s going on behind. With the aid of the AMOLED technology, the image is extremely clear, sharp and not laggy, even at speeds over 320km/h (200mph).
Audi officials seem rather pleased with this (apparently) insignificant addition, even Head of Audi Motorsport Dr. Wolfgang Ullrich, who says that "... in the past, our drivers had to strictly rely on the outside mirrors when looking rearward [...] Yet the rear end and the rear wings plus the vibrations that occur at high speeds significantly limit the field of vision of these mirrors." He then goes on to say "I’m pleased to see that we’ve managed to make another contribution to active safety through this technology.” - and they genuinely have!
Audi officials seem rather pleased with this (apparently) insignificant addition, even Head of Audi Motorsport Dr. Wolfgang Ullrich, who says that "... in the past, our drivers had to strictly rely on the outside mirrors when looking rearward [...] Yet the rear end and the rear wings plus the vibrations that occur at high speeds significantly limit the field of vision of these mirrors." He then goes on to say "I’m pleased to see that we’ve managed to make another contribution to active safety through this technology.” - and they genuinely have!