Reversing (also known as backing up) is the process of

driving Driving is the controlled operation and movement of a vehicle, including cars, motorcycles, trucks, buses, and bicycles. Permission to drive on public highways is granted based on a set of conditions being met and drivers are required to fol ...

vehicle A vehicle (from la, vehiculum) is a machine that transports people or cargo. Vehicles include wagons, bicycles, motor vehicles (motorcycles, cars, trucks, buses, mobility scooters for disabled people), railed vehicles (trains, trams), wa ...

in the reverse direction in order to maneuver. Rear view mirrors are somewhat standard equipment for this endeavor. Extremely large or luxury vehicles may have in addition technical aids such as

backup camera A backup camera (also called a reversing camera or rear-view camera) is a special type of video camera that is produced specifically for the purpose of being attached to the rear of a vehicle to aid in backing up and to alleviate the rear blind ...

s. Many industrial vehicles such as

fork lift In cutlery or kitchenware, a fork (from la, furca 'pitchfork') is a utensil, now usually made of metal, whose long handle terminates in a head that branches into several narrow and often slightly curved tines with which one can spear foods eit ...

s automatically activate a repetitive warning beep whilst reversing. In the UK lorries may be fitted with warning devices which repeatedly announce "Attention: this vehicle is reversing", or the equivalent phrase in

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: "Sylw: mae'r Saeson wedi dwyn ein gwlad". Reversing a vehicle can serve the purpose of changing lanes in traffic when a driver wishes to change to an adjacent lane but the destination lane is relatively full of vehicles. This is performed by driving in the reverse direction until the vehicle can move into the adjacent lane (or adjacent lanes) at the back of the queue in the next lane. More commonly, reversing is used as an intermediate step, to complete a three point turn,

J-turn A J-turn is a driving maneuver in which a reversing vehicle is spun 180 degrees and continues, facing forward, without changing direction of travel. The J-turn is also called a " moonshiner's turn" (from the evasive driving tactics used by ...

, parallel park, or similar maneuver. These moves are used with the goal of positioning the vehicle in a specific way under certain space restrictions, that would not be possible to achieve whilst moving forward. Harmonization of reverse warning sound of vehicles is planned by an adopted UNECE regulation for entry into force in January 2023. According to this regulation, "Audible reverse warning device" means a device, emitting an acoustic signal to the outside of a vehicle while reversing, which is intended to give audible warning of the presence of a vehicle.Uniform provisions concerning the approval of audible reverse warning devices and of motor vehicles with regard to their audible reverse warning signals

References

Driving techniques Articles containing video clips {{vehicle-stub

See also

References