5 Tips for Driving with Night Vision

[Music] driving with night vision is most definitely a special skill that requires a lot of training but there are a few tips and tricks that you can use in order to be more effective and safe when driving under night vision so why would you want to drive a vehicle using only a night vision device well there are many different uses for one in the recreational world a lot of people who hunt invasive wildlife species find that driving a blacked out vehicle under a night vision device is the only way to get close enough to the wildlife without spooking them in our world we find that driving under night vision is useful for anything from private investigation and surveillance operations to just simply driving around the back country without anyone seeing you i should note that we will show how to black out a vehicle in a separate episode but for now let's get right to it with the top 5 things you need to know to effectively drive a blacked out vehicle at night as one might expect any dual tube gen 3 night vision device will be the most effective device for driving a vehicle with dual tube devices you will still retain a significant amount of depth perception which is a hard requirement fective device for driving a vehicle with dual tube devices you will still retain a significant amount of depth perception which is a hard requirement for driving a vehicle in the dark you can use a single tube device such as the ever popular pvs-14 but you will rapidly realize that this is very dangerous to do and you will have to drive much slower than you normally could if you are driving under a dual tube device when your vision is impaired and the way that your depth perception is reduced because you're only using a single tube device you have to rely on larger gross motor movements precision movements while still maintaining speed are what you give up when using a single tube device but then again this is certainly possible just ask an entire generation of veterans who can drive a humvee with a set of pbs7s it's just that a dual tube setup significantly increases your capabilities specifically while driving this may sound like a no-brainer but speed is a critical factor for most vehicle accidents in general and especially accidents that occur when under blackout conditions for anyone who hasn't actually used a night vision device in real life the most disappointing thing to l nts that occur when under blackout conditions for anyone who hasn't actually used a night vision device in real life the most disappointing thing to learn is that night vision goggles don't magically make everything in focus if you focus out to infinity objects up close or blurry and the inverse is true as well so when you're driving you will obviously have to set the focus of your night vision device to infinity which means that the entire interior of your vehicle will be blurry including your dashboard this means that you won't be able to see your speedometer to know how fast you're going couple this with decreased field of view and decreased depth perception and what tends to happen is for your speed to creep up on you particularly if you're driving on a flat featureless road your speed could climb up quite easily if you let it which is something that the military is very familiar with as such official military doctrine is for a driver to have an assistant driver who can view the dashboard and note when the driver is going too fast it's even more effective if the assistant driver can sit in the back behind the driver to get a better look at the control panel but if you don't wan it's even more effective if the assistant driver can sit in the back behind the driver to get a better look at the control panel but if you don't want to do this or if this isn't an option for you there's always the refocus device refocus devices or refocusing devices are simple devices that change the depth of field of your night vision these work by creating a fixed aperture in front of your tubes to limit the light that enters the tube this results in shortening the depth of field or the distance and range at which your goggles are focused at it's kind of a complex idea to understand so let's look at an example this is what it looks like to use a night vision device normally the distance is in focus but anything closer than say 10 feet or so is quite blurry so if you want to see something up close you have to turn the focus ring to focus on a closer object which in turn puts the distance out of focus so for pretty much all night vision devices you can either see things up close or far away but not both at the same time a refocus device allows you to cheat that a little bit by severely limiting the amount of light that enters into your device this allows you to have more or less evice allows you to cheat that a little bit by severely limiting the amount of light that enters into your device this allows you to have more or less everything in focus at the same time you can do detailed work up close while still having far away things in focus the trade-off is that this severely darkens your image unless you do this in an urban environment with lots of ambient light or under a bright full moon you are going to need artificial illumination in the form of an infrared flashlight or other light source which isn't a super huge deal breaker it's just something to be aware of one of the little known aspects of using night vision specifically while driving vehicles is the impact of air conditioning and heating if you are driving under night vision devices do not use either of these this is because when you are driving your night vision device will adapt to the temperature inside the vehicle so if you have to get out of your vehicle pretty quickly the device will fog over almost instantly which is not good considering that if you're driving under night vision in the first place the ability to get out of your vehicle quickly will be a requirement if you've got the air c t if you're driving under night vision in the first place the ability to get out of your vehicle quickly will be a requirement if you've got the air conditioning blasting on high to bring some comfort on a hot and humid night like we have here in the summertime a lot well if you get out of that vehicle and step into that hot and muggy atmosphere your lenses will fog over pretty much instantly this might not be such a huge deal for a lot of people because most night vision devices are purged with some sort of inert gas which limits this and a lot of lens coatings and things out there on the market sort of limit this as well but for things like sacrificial lenses and filters and refocus devices these are going to fog over pretty quickly sure this might not be a huge deal to everyone and the atmosphere might be so uncomfortable and taxing on your morale that you have to use air conditioning or heating in this case fine do what you've got to do but just know that if you've got a beat feet out of your vehicle it would not be ideal to have to take your finger and wipe off your lenses first just like everything else in the operational field practice is far more valuable than any tech in m to take your finger and wipe off your lenses first just like everything else in the operational field practice is far more valuable than any tech in most cases night vision is such a serious force multiplier providing so much of an advantage that spending tens of thousands of dollars on a night vision setup is actually dirt cheap considering the capabilities that it provides but all of this technology is useless if you cannot effectively use it crushing your dome on a door frame because you are wearing nods is a very enlightening experience so get out there and practice looking like an idiot while practicing is far superior to larping during a real situation just like everything else in life training and practicing with your gear will be very enlightening and highlight the little things that end up becoming a big deal over time having a counterweight that's too light or having straps that are too constricting will not necessarily be noticeable if you only practice with your gear for half an hour or so but if you have to stay up all night monitoring a riot or something like that only to have to work the next day well these seemingly small issues will become a serious limitation to y ght monitoring a riot or something like that only to have to work the next day well these seemingly small issues will become a serious limitation to your effectiveness so get out there and practice so that's all we've got for today make sure to check out our other platforms for real-time intelligence updates on a variety of topics and if you'd like to help us out monetarily be sure to check out our patreon and our merch store links in the description below and with that we will see you next time and always remember fight in the shade [Music] [Music] you