Ditch Your Stick-on Convex Blind Spot Mirrors Today

Stop Distorting Your Rearview and Compromising Your Side Mirror Vieweing Space

Drivaware has come up with something useful: the LaneFX , a controller that connects your power mirrors to your turn signals, so that when you signal (you do signal before you turn, right?), your mirrors swivel outward to show your blind spot. Hey, if this keeps just one cyclist out of the hospital, I'm happy.

Generally speaking, larger vehicles have larger rear blind spots. For example, the blind spot behind a typical sedan could only hide a small animal, while the blind spot of an SUV can hide small children, resulting in as many as 50 children being killed by reversing SUVs each year. The blind spot behind tractor trailers can contain entire vehicles, which is one reason many trucks carry warnings not to follow too close, such as "if you can't see my mirrors, I can't see you." This is partly because the driver's position is higher in a tractor-trailer.

Larger vehicles also have much larger front and side blind spots. Tractor-trailers have not only large rear quarter blind spots, but also a large blind spot directly to their left and to their front-right.

There are a number of products available to consumers to deal with the blind spot problem. Convex mirrors, often called "spot mirrors" can bring blind spots into view, but their optical properties impart a great deal of distortion so as to make it difficult to judge distances. Newer technologies using aspheric mirrors allows the blind spots to be virtually eliminated while minimizing distortion.

LATEST REPORT

Most Drivers Say They Don't Use Turn Signals

Maybe you've asked yourself: What is the big deal about a turn signal? Is it hard to find? Difficult to use? Why is it that 57 percent of drivers say they don't use one? Won't-use-a-signal drivers are simply not motivated properly, according to a national survey by Response Insurance, a national car insurer.

• 23 percent say they're too lazy.
• 42 percent say they don't have enough time.
• 17 percent don't signal because they forget to turn the signals off after turning.
• 12 percent say they change lanes too often to bother.
• 11 percent say it's not important.
• 8 percent say they won't signal because other drivers don't.
• 7 percent actually say they forego the signal because it "adds excitement to driving."

(The total exceeds 100 percent because some drivers picked more than one reason.)

With LaneFX, drivers have experienced a 38% increase in consistent turn signal utilization compared with their driving habits prior to owning the system.

Basic Auto Safety Facts

Plus the Economic Benefits of the LaneFX Blind Spot Exposure System

1. According to the US government's Department of Transportation, 1 out of 25 collisions on America's highways is due to improper lane change / lane merge. That's 630,000 accidents annually and almost 2% of which are fatal. The estimated annual insurance cost of these collisions $2.3B not accounting for economic loss. There are no specific statistics on whether these numbers improve by use of conventional convex blind spot mirrors or even by the driver setting the side mirrors wide.
2. Second, consider the driver awareness benefit. By eliminating the average of 2 seconds of a complete head turn / blind spot check, LaneFX can afford you over 205ft of advance emergency stopping/maneuvering distance. This could be a life-saving or accident avoidance distance.
3. Thirdly, let's approach this from a competitive landscape: The blind spot detection segment has just recently begun heating up at the OEM and teir-1supplier level. University of Michigan's Center for Automotive Research (CAR) study of emerging technologies, automotive executives from around the world have predestined a 10% market penetration of blind spot detection systems by MY06. So far this figure has been lagging a bit, but there is evidence of momentum building up in this area. Volvo has recently announced their blind spot detection system called BLIS and Audi has launch its Lane Assists passive system on its brand new Q7 SUV. As matter of fact, Volvo's VP of marketing in the BLIS systems' media preview indicated that that "blind spot problem solution is the number of asked for feature by Volvo owners." Volvo in this detection system chose to use pattern/image recognition technology as their chosen horse for this race. Raytheon and Valeo-Sylvania, two heavy hitters in the teir-1 supplier arena have joined forces to develop a sonar-based detection system under contract with one auto OEM. In both instances Volvo and other system are passive detection systems. Here's what's public from Volvo's own press release: "Because the system is camera based, it not work in the rain, snow, fog, or at night." When Automotive Week and Auto Blog test drove the BLIS system, they encountered a disproportionate number of false positives when driving by a row of parked cars or in the left-most lane on the highway against a concrete divider wall." K. Malhas, inventor of LaneFX expressed his opinion on this design approach as follows: "It's difficult for to understand why the one automotive manufacturer that has coined its existence on occupant safety would release a system that does not appear to have been well-though out." But it actually gets worse from there, estimated price for the system is $1,200 that's over 800% the suggested retail price of a complete LaneFX package and, according to Volvo if the its alert mechanism - a small orange light on the inside of the A-pillar - becomes "too annoying" to the driver, the driver has a switch to turn it off! Unbelievable!

Back-over Accidents

Moms Put ParkFX to the Test

ParkFX For Your SUV - Prevent a Tragedy

At least once a week a child in America is run over, typically in backup (reversing) accidents

You should be. According to Consumer Reports, the blind spot behind a tall vehicle such as a Chevrolet Avalanche truck can extend as much as 51 feet in the case of a small-stature driver about 5 feet 1 inches tall. Even for an average-sized driver, 5 feet 8 inches tall, the blind spot can extend nearly 30 feet behind the Avalanche, according to the consumer advice publication.

"No one is telling people there's a bigger blind spot in these vehicles," said Janette Fennell, founder and president of the child safety advocacy group Kids and Cars.

Pointing out her statistics showing at least one child a week in the United States is killed in a "backover" incident, Fennell urges that some kind of "backover warning and prevention device" be made mandatory on all vehicles.

Are All Blind Spot Mirrors the Same?

No. See Why LaneFX Won the "Drivers Choice" Award by BlindSpotSystems.com

The areas most commonly referred to as blind spots are the rear quarter blind spots, areas towards the rear of the vehicle on both sides. Vehicles in the adjacent lanes of the road may fall into these blind spots, and a driver may be unable to see them using only the car's mirrors.

Other areas that are sometimes called blind spots are those that are too low to see behind and in front of a vehicle. Also, in cases where side vision is hindered, areas to the left or right can become blind spots as well.

Beware of Setting Your Mirrors "Wide"

Mirror alignment is often done incorrectly by drivers. There is a tendency to want to provide context for the side mirror view by having the rear of the driver's own vehicle in the mirror frame. When improperly aligned the side view mirrors widen the perspective offered by rear view mirror, but still not providing full coverage of the blind spot areas around SUV's, light trucks, minivans and even commercial vans.

Even with a head-turn, the driver should continue to look forward, in the direction the car is traveling. This is accomplished by using the correct blind spot mirrors or blind spot detection system. Exaggerated head-turns, where the driver actually faces backward for a moment to check the blind spot, are dangerous because the vehicle in front may come to a sudden stop just at that instant resulting in a rear-end collision.

More than 2,400 children are accidentally backed-up over each year in the U.S.

And of those, more than 100 die. With the proliferation of SUVs and mini-vans, drivers aren't aware of the enormous rear view blind spots that prevent them from seeing what's behind them, especially small objects, animals, people, and children. Some of these blind spots are even greater than the length of an average driveway! Senators Hillary Clinton (D-New York) and John Sununu (R-New Hampshire) have recently proposed legislation requiring the U.S. Department of Transportation to issue regulations aimed at reducing accidents that frequently kill or injure children in cars. But until that legislation is passed, it's up to the driver to protect their loved-ones and prevent a tragedy by using a Park Assist system or a backup camera.

In fact, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimated 2,767 people were treated in emergency rooms from July 2000 through June 2001 because of backovers. "This is a huge problem," Fennell said. "A lot of [the problem] is due to the change in our vehicle mix" that has more people driving tall-profile vehicles, she said.

Indeed, Fennell's research indicates that "in 60 percent of the [backover] cases, it's a truck, van or SUV that's involved," Fennell said. The reduced rearward visibility is caused by the design and tall profile of SUVs, pickup trucks and even vans.

The top edge of the tailgates and liftgates in these vehicles typically sits high and so do the vehicles themselves. This means that unaware children and small-stature adults and anything not tall enough to be visible in the rear window glass might be run over as the vehicle is backing up.

Consumers can choose from a wider range of aftermarket vehicle-backup systems since our last report, including new and improved designs.

All such systems are intended to help drivers detect objects within the blind spot behind the vehicle.

New are camera systems such as the Audiovox and ParkFX we tested that offer a “picture in the mirror” feature. The display is on a mirror that fits on top of or replaces the existing rear-view mirror, so you don’t have to choose between looking at the display and at the rear-view mirror while backing up. ParkFX also combines a camera with an audible sensor, so you can see and hear potential trouble. We would like to see more backup warning systems on the market that combine camera and sensor technologies.

Backup systems are typically marketed as parking aids, not safety equipment. But our tests show that the camera models can also help drivers avoid backover-accident injuries and fatalities.