Make Safer Lane Changes Part of Your Daily Drive

10 Things You Can Do to Reduce Your Risk of Auto Collision

1. Get a good start at intersections. This helps cut commute times for the individual as well as for countless others. Make it through one extra light and that’s an average of two minutes that isn’t wasted sitting in traffic.
2. Don’t stop prematurely at yellow lights. Not only is it often highly dangerous (if the driver behind isn’t paying attention), it also wastes time, money and gas and promotes traffic congestion, stress and frustration.
3. Utilize turns efficiently, especially right turns. How drivers perform turns determines how much time is wasted, and congestion is created for what can be hundreds, even thousands of drivers.
4. At least match speeds on on-ramps and utilize the full length of the on-ramp. Merging early and failing to get up to speed on on-ramps often creates tremendous congestion, wastes time and gas and can be extremely dangerous.
5. Let faster drivers by without slowing. This eliminates stress and they’ll likely eliminate large amounts of congestion farther ahead for you, thus saving you valuable time.
6. Safely pass slower vehicles. Failing to swiftly and safely pass by slower vehicles — especially large vehicles such as motor homes and 18-wheelers — is the No. 1 cause of traffic congestion.
7. Look ahead. Read traffic flow properly so that acceleration, deceleration and lane changes can be properly timed. The less often drivers have to slow down, the more fuel, time and money is saved and less traffic congestion is created.
8. Change lanes properly. This will help prevent slowing, preferably without losing speed and without causing others to slow down.
9. Utilize right and left turn combinations rather than sitting at red lights. Not only is gas, time and money being saved, there is less congestion at that light.

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!

LaneFX Safe Driving Tips:

LaneFX Helps Drivers Remember to Use Their Blinkers Before Merging or Changing Lanex

Latest LaneFX core driving tips gathered from LaneFX owners

• Wear your seatbelt. Almost 40 per cent of all vehicle occupants killed in 2002 were not wearing a seatbelt. So whether you're a driver or passenger, buckle up.
• Slow down. Excessive speed is a contributing factor in 20 per cent of occupant fatalities.
• Each year, 25 per cent of deaths and 40 per cent of serious injuries from vehicle collisions occur at intersections. Be careful, even when you have the right of way, and remember to treat a non-working traffic light like a four-way stop.
• In summer, there are more people on the roads in many different kinds of vehicles. Remember to watch out for motor bikes and bicycles and be courteous to these road users.
• The safest place for kids under 12 is in the back seat. Have kids travel in the back seat, especially when there is an airbag for the passenger seat.

Don't drink and drive

Impaired driving is a problem that seriously affects the safety of our roads. Every year more than 1,100 people die in alcohol-related collisions - that's about one-third of the total number of fatalities. Thousands more are injured, many of them permanently disabled. In fact, nearly 40 per cent of seriously injured drivers consumed alcohol prior to their collisions.

Driving a car taps into almost all our basic skills - perception, attention, judgment, decision making, physical reactions - as well as our ability to coordinate these skills. Alcohol impairs these skills and our ability to drive.

• Put simply, don't drink and drive.
• If you are hosting a party or function where alcohol is served, remember that you may be legally liable for damage caused by guests - even after they have left the premises.

Check your tires

Without proper maintenance, your tires could fail and cause you to lose control of your vehicle. Proper tire maintenance is not only critical to the safe operation of your vehicle, but will also improve fuel economy, extend tire life, provide better vehicle handling, help prevent avoidable breakdowns and collisions, and reduce exhaust emissions that contribute to environmental, health and climate change problems.

• Driving on under-inflated tires at high speeds on a warm summer day is a dangerous combination. For safety's sake, check your tires once a month, especially before you head out on a long trip.
• Make sure your tires are inflated to the correct levels and do not exceed the load limit of your vehicle. This information can usually be found on the inside of the driver's door.
• Inspect your tires regularly for uneven tread wear, cuts, cracks, bulges and foreign objects and rotate tires on a regular basis.

Sharing the road with large trucks and commercial vehicles

There are more commercial vehicles on Canada's roads now than ever before. These vehicles can be up to 40 times heavier than an average car and take more than twice the distance to stop. To prevent collisions with these vehicles, remember:

• Avoid cutting in front of trucks or braking suddenly in front of them.
• When you are in the driver's blind spot, move through quickly and never pass on the right, where the blind spot is even larger. If you can't see the driver's face in their side mirror, they can't see you.
• When passing a truck, ensure you can do it safely, signal, then pass promptly. Be prepared to encounter splash and spray on wet roads.

Cell phones and other distractions

Pay attention-don't engage in distracting activities while driving. Cell phones and other devices such as electronic navigation systems are emerging as factors in road collisions.

• Do not use a phone while driving.
• Turn the phone off before you start driving. Let callers leave a message.
• If there are passengers in the vehicle, let one of them take or make the call.
• If you're expecting an important call, let someone else drive.

LaneFX Standard Features to Make Every Lane Change Safer

Q. Even though LaneFX is ultra simple concept, you've managed to make LaneFX a very feature rich product. Correct?

A. Absolutely. Let me give you a brief walk through of the features and add-on options of the LaneFX system:

1. First we talked about the universal fit of LaneFX.
2. Second, ease of installation (which you have to remember quick installations mean less cost of ownership to the customer and faster seamless installations mean higher customer satisfaction). The way we were about to simplified installation on hundreds if not thousands of power mirror systems is by using an Intelligent Learn Technology. So all the installer has to do is hook up a set of 3 wires on either side of LaneFX module. And then all the installer has to do is start learn mode and the unit "learns" the wiring setup of the vehicle and configures itself on that basis. No complex wiring diagram, no programming required.
3. Third, all mirror movements are fully customizable at installation. We wanted to make LaneFX as responsive to the driver and tailored to the driver's preferences as possible. So with every LaneFX unit, each driver can customize how far the mirror opens up, how long it pauses when it gets there, and even how fast the mirror should move. You can control your preferences separately for the right and left mirror.
4. LaneFX is intended to be a concealed unit either under the dash or in the trunk. So these adjustments should be made at installation and you can always tweak them or change occasionally after that.
5. Another feature we offer in the system is control of both mirrors. So you control the left and right mirror separately or concurrently.

Q. And all of these features you mentioned are standard in every LaneFX box?

A. Yes. That's correct.

Q. But I also understand that you have a number of optional add-on components that a customer can choose to further enhance his/hers LaneFX system.

A. Our team has worked very diligently to research what consumers would like to have in their complete LaneFX system. Let me share with you a quick list of what some of these options are:

1. First is a very inexpensive add-on component we have that we think is going to be very popular, especially among entry level domestic vehicles is the optional Mirror Speed Boost. With this component owners of vehicles with slow moving power mirrors can safely boost their mirror movement speeds up to 200% of OEM speed. This will provide drivers with a way to ensure that LaneFX movement is responsive to their driving needs. All of the mirror speeds are customizable by the driver from 80% to 200% of OEM speed, and those adjustments can be done separately for left and right mirrors.
2. Second we have a great optional component that's quite frankly is a driver awareness system in and of itself: ParkFX. ParkFX is an active park assist and curb exposure system that uses your side mirrors to expose the parking boundaries around your vehicle as your backing up. Much in the same LaneFX moves your mirror outward to expose the blind spot next to you and behind you, ParkFX tilts the blind spot mirror downward when you put the vehicle in reverse to expose either the parking lines let's say if you were in a mall parking lot, or more importantly to expose the curb in parallel parking situations. When you take the car out of reverse, the mirror comes back to its original position, every single time. Just like LaneFX, ParkFX is universal and fully-customizable to the driver's preferences. The system works on any vehicle, new or old, domestic or import, manual or automatic transmission. And you can choose to have ParkFX control the left, right or both mirrors. And to be complete, you can also configure at installation how much ParkFX should tilt each of these mirrors when the vehicle is backing up. So for a big SUV, you can choose the blind spot mirrors to tilt down farther than say someone who drives a small sedan. Everything is universal and fully-customizable to your needs.
3. Thirdly is an add-on component we are very proud of: our Turn Signal Link integration kit. I put my blinker on and that activates LaneFX to show me my blind spot before I change lanes? Yes exactly. And you can also configure the Turn Signal Link integration kit to activate only when the vehicle is moving above certain speed, like over 55mph to have it only activate on when you're on the highway, or say over 35mph in an urban city setting.
4. The forth in our options list is a plug-and-play wireless controls kit. We've heard time and time again that drivers would ideally like the LaneFX controls at the finger tips, just like your horn or turn signal stalk. this tiny module I am holding is an example of a left-hand wireless control. So we designed this wireless kit so that installers never have to worry about running wires to the steering wheel (which is a no no) and to give the customer to place the controls anywhere. The wireless controls kit includes two controls for left and right and is designed to fit behind one of your steering-wheel spokes. The placement is meant to avoid competing with the increasing number of OEM buttons on the front of the steering wheel. Also the placement behind the top spoke make the LaneFX control within the reach of a finger tip without having to move a hand off the steering wheel regardless in you drive with your hands in the 10-to-2 position or racing style.
5. One more plug-and-play optional component which is our Speed Sensitivity Mode. This is an add-on component that integrates with OBDII port of virtually any vehicle and continuously reads the vehicle speed. The LaneFX module is pre-programmed to take advantage of this option and it then produces more dynamic mirror movement based on the vehicle speed. This ensures an ever greater degree of responsiveness to the driver's needs in real-time. So LaneFX moves the mirror faster at say 70mph than at 55mph? Exactly right, and it also pauses less when it reaches its maximum expansion angle at higher speeds.

Why Turn Your Head Away From Traffic? Turn Your Side Mirror Instead!

The Automotive Blind Spot Problem Shouldn't Even Be A Problem

Motor vehicles rely on two mirrors mounted on each side of the vehicle to uncover objects (including other vehicles such as passing or trailing traffic) next to them and behind them.
These vehicle power side mirrors are based on a design that is incapable of displaying, or “detecting”, a vehicle occupying a directly adjacent lane and approaching the reference vehicle from the rear (such as the situation of a faster vehicle passing a slower vehicle).
The overall phenomenon of a vehicle in an adjacent lane becoming invisible in a driver’s side mirror is known as the “Blind Spot”, or “Blind Zone.”
The location of a traditional Blind Spot is denoted in Figure 1 in red. The size and position of the area constituting a Blind Spot Zone in a given vehicle is based on the following factors:

• The distance of the position of the side mirror to the driver’s eyes,
• The width of the mirror surface,
• The width of the object behind the reference vehicle (in an adjacent lane),
• The driver-specified position of the blind side mirror,
• The inflection of the mirror’s reflective surface (concave / convex mirror).

The Blind Spot phenomenon is pervasive among virtually all passenger cars, light and medium trucks and vans, and all sport utility vehicles. Some medium and heavy duty vehicles, resort to mounting multiple side view mirrors to alleviate this problem.

LaneFX is More Than Just a Car Gadget

Many of the latest car models include systems that alert you when a car is in your blind spot. Those of us with older autos have had rely on our own road skills -- until now. Drivaware has introduced LaneFX: When you activate your turn signal, the device moves the corresponding side-view mirror to expose your blind spot and any vehicles that may be hiding in it. Of course, if you remember your driver's training, a quick glance over your shoulder does essentially the same thing. The LaneFX is compatible with any car that has power mirrors and is available in a Basic Edition ($197), Highway Edition ($242) and Commuter Edition ($296).

Are You Blind To Backup Danger?

Drivaware and Safe4Kids Tests Show Larger Vehicles Have Larger Blind Spots

LaneFX proven better solution to the blind spot problem than stick-on convex blind spot mirrors