Pratt & Miller has developed a new rear-facing radar, that works almost like a modern blind spot detection system, used on today’s street cars. This one keeps track on the rear approaching cars and informs the driver by showing him the position and distance of them on a cockpit mounted LCD.
The system was designed especially for endurance racing, and made its debut at the 12 Hours of Sebring race last weekend, used by Corvette Racing.
The radar system can detect cars even in poor visibility, and it uses easy-to-distinguish symbols to show the driver approaching cars and their distance. When the symbol is yellow, it signifies that the car is rolling at the same speed as his car. If it is green or red, it means that the car is falling behind or it is approaching. Also the, system informs the driver when he is overtaken by a faster car, by indicating with a big flashing red arrow the on which side the car is passing.
"The system uses a rear-facing radar sensor to track up to 32 objects, and runs on a custom-built Linux PC with a Core i3 CPU," said Chris Hammond, Embedded Systems Engineer for Pratt & Miller. "With a momentary glance the driver knows how many cars are following, how far back each one is, their closing speeds, and whether or not they are probably a faster class."
You can see the system in action in the videos bellow.
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