Patent ID: 7043342
Filing Date: 2006-05-09
Classification: B62D,G02B

Abstract:
1. A method for driving a large motor vehicle having a windshield behind which a driver sits and operates a steering wheel of the vehicle, comprising: placing a pair of driver-visible lines in, on or near the windshield, located for a particular driver relative to the driver's head position while driving the vehicle, the lines being obliquely positioned relative to horizontal and converging toward one another at upper ends of the lines, including a left line and a right line, the left line being oriented to appear to the driver to be generally parallel to a left side lane line in a roadway where the vehicle is being driven in a straight path and wherein the path ahead of the vehicle is straight, and the right line being oriented to appear to be generally parallel to a right side lane line or right edge of the roadway on which the vehicle is being driven on a straight path, driving the vehicle with the eyes of the driver focused and converged ahead at the roadway and not on the driver-visible lines, thereby producing in the peripheral vision of a two-eyed driver a double image of each of the left and right driver-visible lines, the double images comprising inner and outer left line images and inner and outer right line images and the inner left and right line images defining a conceptual zone of safety between them, and steering the vehicle so as to maintain the vehicle on a path wherein both the left side lane line and the right side lane line or roadway edge remain outside the zone of safety, whereby when such a line enters the zone of safety the driver takes this as a warning that corrective steering action is needed.