Not unless you build a mirror in there somewhere

Sometimes just the reflected light from the cabin is enough. But if not, a simple bit of foil or optic fiber can take care of that. I've done plenty of work with bouncing IR off of bits of foil and it works fine. You'd be surprised.

And I though IRDA transceivers could broadcast in the right range if you threw the right code at them. For instance, there are programs that convert your PalmPilot into an IR remote. I could be wrong about that, of course.