If you look at the Mazda 3 or 2018 Leaf, if you turn the turn signal in a direction where someone is in your "blind-spot", you get an audio indication that you are about to do something likely cause an accident, as you should. However on the Bolt, you get no such indication and, at most, you have a light flashing at you from the relevant side view mirror but no immediate indication that just told the car you are planning to do something dangerous. From our (myself and my wife), this makes the blind-spot detection essentially useless for no other reason than that GM did not follow common common sense and common practice. It is also the only reason that we are not buying a Bolt!
Faulty blind-spot detection
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only reason, just Wow. In the premier trim with the view and rearview mirror camera there's just not a blind spot in this car to begin with. Many of us think the car will alarm but don't know because you put yourself and others in danger just to test it. And since it hardly has a blind spot, it would be very rare to accidentally put oneself in that position.
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Yeah, I agree. Right now the Bolt just flashes the blind spot warning indicator on the mirror, but an audible and recognizable tone would be superior, IMHO. If GM is worried about zealous drivers getting annoyed by the tone coming on all the time, they could make it a customizable option.
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Our 2016 Highlander Hybrid has blind spot monitors, but lacks an audible warning, so GM is hardly alone in this regard.
Assistive technologies like blind spot monitoring, backup campers, and rear cross traffic alerts are adjuncts to good driving practices. They are not replacements for checking your mirrors and looking over your shoulder, or looking behind you. I have found the blind spot monitoring to be a very helpful assistant in making lane changes. An audible warning would be helpful, if not intrusive, but isn’t essential if you are following good practices, like checking your mirrors in the first place.
I was always taught the following mnemonic when changing lanes: SMOG: Signal, Mirrors, Over the shoulder look, Go. Too many people seem to ignore the S, M or O portion.
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Back in the day they checked their mirrors and looked over their shoulders before attempting a lane change. Weird, huh?
dude... learn sarcasm.
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Right back at ya.
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Back in the day we used to place our hands on the dash to hold ourselves in place if we thought we might be about to crash. But that doesn't mean that I think seat belts or air bags are superfluous...
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Seatbelts and Airbags are a primary source of injury prevention in a crash. Blind spot monitoring is a secondary source of crash prevention when changing lanes. The first, of course, checking your mirrors and looking over your shoulder.
There’s a huge difference between the effectiveness of using your hands on the dash and that of seat-belts/airbags to prevent serious crash injuries, but I don’t think the same level of effectiveness exists between using blind-spot monitoring and remembering to check your mirrors & look over your shoulder when changing lanes.
Don’t get me wrong, I love the blind spot monitoring feature. I specifically sought it out in our last two cars. But I still check my mirrors and do the over the shoulder glance because that is good practice.
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It's actually a pretty clever human factors design to require the driver to look at the mirror to see the warning. It forces him to keep in the habit of checking the mirror in case the blind spot monitoring system fails.
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That never occurred to me. Well done design!
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