Big rigs have lots of mirrors to help reduce blind spots, but the one area that isn’t covered is in between the door and front bumper. This means that cars and motorcyclists in that area are invisible to them. So Smart Lite was created to enhance road safety.
The description regarding how this works isn’t entirely clear, but as best as can be deciphered, the driver replaces the original backup light with a Smart Lite. This includes a convex mirror on the opposite side. When the driver looks into the truck’s side mirrors, any object in the area of the front bumper blind spot is then visible in the side mirrors because of the product’s backup light or turn signal on one side and convex mirror on the other.
The product seems like it may have potential, but when it comes to safety, one always wants to be sure. Backers interested in the trucking industry might also want to check out Dudad, Cargo Net Tie-Down, and U-Wake. This campaign seeks to raise $60,000 CAD (~$48,300 USD) on Kickstarter. For $200 CAD (~$161 USD) backers get a set of Smart Lites with an expected delivery of April 2015.