Blind Spot Detection

[YYZ-IAD]

Hi All

Many new cars come with blind spot detection whereby mirror lights up when another car is in blind spot -- a great visual cue. Has made me wonder why Tesla MS doesnt have this feature.

So how are we supposed to know when someone in our blindspot -- look down at dash to study visual display or cars nearby? That isnt safe.

Perhaps there is automatic steer feature that doesnt "allow" car to drive into another car in next lane. In 1.5 years i havent encountered this - and I dont want to try a live experiment.

How does Tesla approach this?

thanks

 

[ftlum]

Blind spot detection is horrible on the model 3. For many like me, the side mirrors can’t be adjusted out far enough to be properly set.

For a visual notification, you have to look at the touchscreen, which is the wrong place to look when you’re changing lanes. At least on the S, you can see the binnacle display more easily.

All we currently have is the last second audio alert that you’re about to hit someone in your blind spot when you turn into them. I’ve never felt the car move away itself— it only makes the audio alert.

The best work around I’ve heard proposed would be for the blinker to make a different noise when someone is in your blind spot. That would give us some advanced warning without being annoying. I hope Elon will implement this in the future— it doesn’t seem hard to do.

 

[sjkt42]

Someone told me that the blind spot problem with all the models is that the cars use the cameras rather than radar to detect other cars. The avatars of other cars on my Model S don't appear until the cars are virtually next to me. This seems to be a big problem for Tesla.

 

[sdmack]

As a new Model S owner, who’s other and previous vehicles both had the mirror mounted blind spot monitor, I definitely missed it on my first couple of drives of the Model S. But I think I am adapting- I am including the driver display a couple times in my scan as I make the lane change. But ever being aware that the visualization may not pick up fast moving vehicles in the adjacent lane, but then again I should see those while they are well behind me.

 

[Watts_Up]

As a new Model S owner, who’s other and previous vehicles both had the mirror mounted blind spot monitor, I definitely missed it on my first couple of drives of the Model S. But I think I am adapting- I am including the driver display a couple times in my scan as I make the lane change. But ever being aware that the visualization may not pick up fast moving vehicles in the adjacent lane, but then again I should see those while they are well behind me.

I believe that you got a noticeable noise and a red car display when there is a potential issue.

I was recently on the freeway and tried to pass the car in front of me.
I checked that it was safe, I set my turn signal, and checked again before starting to change lane when I got a strong warning.

It happens that the car following me decided to pass me even if I had already set my turn signal on.
I remember also that the steering was turning the wheel toward the right to put me back into my lane.

After this kind of event, I felt very safe knowing that the car would warn me and actively steer in the opposite direction .

 

[John J]

I recently had the opposite experience with my 2020 Model S. I glanced at my screen and seeing no car in my blind spot, began to change lanes as I looked into my mirror. To my surprise, a car was in my blind spot so I continued in my lane. I find my blind spot detection to be extremely unreliable.

 

[JPoldo]

A previous thread asked for ms "wish list" of new features to avoid more silly updates like fart mode. I made a strong case for a blind spot warning in both side mirrors. If a $20K Kia has this as a standard feature, why not an $80K Tesla?

My buddy / next door neighbor runs the company that makes 98% of all car mirrors used in American vehicles. This economy of scale surely could provide Tesla low cost side mirrors with blind spot detection/warning. He told me the company has mirror capacity to produce in one week the annual production of all Tesla vehicles.

Whst is the best way for us to get this feature on the next ms refresh? Due to likely hardware changes, highly doubtful it could be an OTA update.

 

[John J]

It would be great if Tesla would put an indicator in the rear view mirror, as most other manufacturers have done. However, a simple software solution would be to have a car turn red whenever it is in the blind spot and then activate the chime when the turn signal is turned on, rather than when you are about to hit an adjacent car. A bigger problem in my case is that my car does not appear to accurately detect when a car is in my blind spot. It seems that Tesla's neural network may need improvement.