The Truth About Blind Spots

by Edward Niedermeyer

Published: August 19th, 2009

For $1,595, Ford will sell you a Blind Spot Information System (BLIS) which uses radar to detect vehicles approaching your “blind spot.” But, as Christopher Jensen points out at the New York Times, blind spots don’t have to exist in the first place. Summarizing an SAE paper on blind spot safety, he explains how to get rid of the pesky things.

“The driver leans his head against the driver’s window and sets the mirror so that the side of the vehicle is just visible. Then, the driver leans to the middle of the vehicle (between the front seats) and does the same thing with the passenger-side mirror.”

Better yet, he gets Ford’s chief safety engineer Steve Kovaks to basically admit that the system is largely useless. “If we could train everyone in the United States to do it that way, then I think we would probably be a lot better and we wouldn’t need a system like this,” he says. Especially considering that “an elegant and inexpensive solution” already exists for the problem of blindspots. BlindZoneMirror uses mirror-lens inserts to provide good blind-spot vision when tailored to a specific vehicle. The best part? It was invented by the guy who wrote the SAE paper cited above. One thing it won’t do is provide an opportunity to show off your cars ability to perform unnecessary tasks in a slick, high-tech fashion. Which is why it costs less than $1,500, and why it will probably never be as intriguing to new car buyers.

Edward Niedermeyer

More by Edward Niedermeyer

Comments

Join the conversation

5 of 86 comments

Ohsnapback on Aug 20, 2009

'Idiocracy' the movie seems to be prognosticating where we're headed as a society. I'm sure they'll supplement this blind spot monitoring system with some form of exterior air bag, to keep the paint from rubbing, in case the side windows, rearview & sideview mirrors, and blind spot monitoring system don't do the trick.

Like Reply
Toasty on Aug 20, 2009
frizzlefry, manufacturers are already wise to the likes of you. Safety sells, so tieing safety systems to luxury items is a common way to ease you into packages you really don't want. For example, I wanted side airbags on my 2004 Accord, but had to buy the leather package to get the airbags. I'm sure the engineers wanted every Honda to have those airbags, but they don't call the Sales shots.

Like Reply
Jmo on Aug 20, 2009
I’m sure they’ll supplement this blind spot monitoring system with some form of exterior air bag, to keep the paint from rubbing, in case the side windows, rearview & sideview mirrors, and blind spot monitoring system don’t do the trick. Should we also strip out the electronic nannies from our nations fleet of commerical aircaft? I mean who needs TCAS and GPWS - can't pilots just look out the window?

Like Reply
A Andre Hana on May 10, 2010

I have been reading all of theses posts about blind spot mirrors and I am amazed at the feedback from everyone's take on what does and does not work. There is a Blind spot mirror that will blow some of these $1500.+ systems out of the water; called the "Automotive Blind Spot Safety System and Method". Google it! I read up on it and was intrigued. I think this guy is on to something BIG!

Like Reply
- Wmba on May 11, 2010
  
  I did google this as you suggested. Not entirely to my surprise, I found out that YOU are the inventor. Perhaps this has something to do with your enthusiasm. As for praising this as a third person endorsement, who do you think we are, babes in the woods? Self-serving at the very least, Mr. Hannah. No matter how good your invention is, and maybe it's better than the slap-chop, I dunno, I'd never buy one from a self-boosting spammer. If you had announced to the blog that you had designed a better mirror, and asked for comments, you'd have been 10,000 percent ahead, rather than pushing your product by pretending to be someone else endorsing it. Some people never learn.
  
  Like