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Throughout the 90's there will be continuous progress in switch technology applicable to heavy duty commercial vehicles such as trucks, buses, off-highway construction, agricultural, in many ways similar to that applied to passenger cars. Visibility, recognition of function, ease of function, location and consistence of operation will be principal areas of concern with the foremost being safety and longevity of service. That portion of the switch behind the dash panel also becomes increasingly important as space becomes more valuable. Major changes will occur both to the switches themselves as well as the method used for the signals such switches transmit.

Buses used in inter- and intra-city applications are characterized by large windshields. These are usually higher than their width and, in most instances, are divided with a center molding. The configuration lends itself to a pantograph wipe pattern to allow cleaning of the largest area possible. Wiper operation is demanding due to real estate constraints, that is, limited area for the motor and its linkage. FEATURES OF OPERATION have been lacking due to complication of the pneumatic system, confusion due to multiple controls, and the ever-present need to contain price. ECAM (Electronically Controlled Air Motor) has introduced the electronic control of the windshield wipers while combining, for operator safety and convenience, operation in alternative modes, smooth stroke, added features, and greater available power. Improvements in operational features such as INTERMITTENT or interval wiping, PROGRAMMED WASH, and headlight activation are featured with ECAM.

Spherical convex auxiliary mirrors are commonly used on commercial vehicles to expand the field of view (FOV) beyond the limited FOV (approximately 10 degrees lefl and 4 degrees right) available in flat mirrors commonly referred to as “West Coast Mirrors”. Unfortunately the tradeoff with the short radius spherical convex mirrors used to obtain the desired FOV is a dramatic reduction (95% or greater) in apparent image size. This much reduced image size provides the vehicle operator with information sufficient to detect the presence or absence of adjacent vehicles, but is of limited use in making the relative speed and relative distance judgements required for lane changes. Considerable efforts are being expended to develop relatively high cost electronics based object detection and warning systems.