Drivers may be experiencing dangerous blind spots in many new cars, according to the visibility testing by car and motor insurance provider SGIO. The testing involved rotating a laser 180 degrees from the driver’s seat to replicate a driver’s vision, the scores were calculated by taking into account the position of the windscreen pillars and how much each blocked the laser.
SGIO tested 138 new vehicles and disclosed that more than 80 per cent of cars tested only scored one or two stars with popular cars like the Toyota Yaris (one star) among them. SGIO Head of Research Robert McDonald acknowledged manufacturers faced a difficult design challenge in combining safety with visibility. Mr McDonald said only 14 cars struck the right balance by performing well in both the Car Blind Spot Ratings and scoring well in the frontal crash testing of the Australian New Car Assessment Program (ANCAP). To see the full results of the SGIO Car Blind Spot Ratings, visit www.sgio.com.au.
Tags: dangerous blind spots, new cars, SGIO