The BMW Lane Change Indicator

Thursday, December 10th, 2009

I just got a look at what may well be one of the strangest add-ons in a BMW I’ve seen since I wrote about the in-car espresso maker.  It’s a lane change indicator, and I’ve got video of it below.

Now, here’s where things get weird.  Basically, what it amounts to is a blind spot sensor that covers your blind spot.  As we all know if we’ve been driving for any length of time, there are some portions of the area around you that are invisible while you drive–you can’t crane your head around far enough for your peripheral vision to kick in.  So what the lane change indicator does is, essentially, detect when someone’s in your blind spot and gives you a visible, triangle-shaped warning.

I’m sorry, but this is awesome.  Entirely too awesome for words, in all honesty. I’m willing to bet we’ve all accidentally cut someone off in a lane change at one time or another just because we couldn’t spot them in our blind spot.  This will likely go a long way toward solving that problem.

Tags: blind spot, blind spots, BMW, dangerous blind spots, lane change, lane change indicator, lane changes

Posted in Accessories, BMW, Cars, Law | 0 Comments

Dangerous Blind Spots In New Cars

Friday, April 17th, 2009

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

Posted in Cars | 0 Comments