Finally Figured Out Blind Spot Chime! (It's Quite Literal)

[rraghu78]

For a price of 50k (like Midrange), I think it's fair to expect that Adaptive Cruise Control will come standard, but alas Tesla bundled that feature into the basic Autopilot :-( .. I think even Honda Civic has it, but not my MR3.

 

[CBPfromTN]

Hello All,
First off, I want to say if this was already posted on, mod please delete, but I did not see it.

So, I know that a lot of the Sentry videos and forums were saying the chime for blind spot {BLIS) was not working, and it was not working on my car either. Until today it went off; it gave me a bit of a jump as it was a new sound I hadn't heard before. I had not received a new update (on 5.15) so it was not fixed via update.

But then I looked in the settings and opened the info button.

Blind Spot Collision Warning Chime
"When enabled, you will hear a chime when a potential collision is detected while you are leaving the lane"

The problem here that I, and I think many, missed is that this is not a Blind Spot Warning that we are used to and how the screen acts by turning other cars and lines red. The Chime is quite literally a Collision warning.

It seems it only chimes if your actions are going to directly hit a car AND you actually start turning the wheel to cause the collision, compared to typical BLIS systems that give a wider margin of warning and cover the collision zone and a car length or two past that, as well as chiming regardless of steering input.

Again this eluded me on why it didn't work today; I hope it helps others!

P.S.: Sorry to the cars of Boston who I scared trying to prove this theory...

Thanks for the report! I have a 2018 Model S and before I got my Tesla, I had a 2016 Avalon hybrid and I really enjoyed having the side mirrors have the little LED image of a car when a car was in my blind spot, whether I was attempting to change lanes or not. I often used it after passing a car on the interstate and wanted to return to the lane, in front of the car I had just passed. The little lighted car in the side mirror would alert me that the car was still in my blind spot. Attempting to actually change lanes and getting the alert THEN, (to me,) is a little less useful but still good to have, however, I don't have this update yet...

 

[CBPfromTN]

Most of the blind spot warning systems that I'm familiar with have an LED/light either in the outside side mirrors or inside the car near the A pillar. In other words, in the line of sight where the driver is supposed to be looking when changing lanes. Putting the visual warning on the center screen of the Model 3 will not help if merging left.

I agree. I MUCH prefer the light in the outside car mirrors, as most of the time I would find that little light very helpful. (If I am in the right hand lane and want to pass a car by passing it in the left hand lane and I want to return to the right hand lane in front of the car I just passed, that little light is very helpful to know that I have completely passed that car and can safely return to the right hand lane. That's just me, but I prefer that over a warning that I am about to crash into the car I just passed.

 

[Dariushd]

I was wondering why I haven't heard the chime yet...coming from my wife's C300 that chimes the moment you hit the turn signal, I was expecting a sound but haven't heard it.

It seems as if it chimes when someone is coming up on you from behind in your intended lane, as opposed to chiming when there's a car already in that spot?

 

[Ugene]

I would prefer if turn signal clicks audibly change frequency and/or tone when changing lanes is unsafe. I would quickly train myself to interpret it as wait, wait, wait, wait, go, go, go ...

 

[mhan00]

I don't even own a Model 3 (yet), and I've been saying this on all the youtube videos where clueless people were saying it didn't work. It's basically when a car is overtaking you from either side and you start to pull into that lane. So yes.

Drove me nuts watching the videos where they were trying to test the blind spot warning while on AP with auto lane change enabled. That’s the most pointless situation to have a blind spot warning: if the car doesn’t detect a car in the blind spot it will change lanes, if it does, then it won’t. I’d prefer two stage alert with a vibration in the steering wheel similar to the lane departure warning as stage 1 when the signal is engaged to indicate a lane change with a car in the blind spot, with a harsher alert chime as stage 2 if the driver starts to change lanes anyway, but the current implementation is adequate.

 

[NHK X]

No, the system is perfect as it is. Tesla clearly put a lot of thought into it to make it effective and not annoying. No one wants an annoying /alarming sound every time they are signaling to merge onto someones lane. The chime alarm should only be for "collision" warning when your actually doing something wrong and merging when someone is beside you. If you want just a blind spot warning when you signal it's already there. The display lights up with red lines and the car in your blind spot turns red also. I understand your point you want tesla to be more like triditiinal manufactures but that's not Tesla. This is an easy behavior adjustment just like model 3 looking to the right for speed info. You'll quickly get use to it. I think Tesla is doing a good job with this feature implementation.

Also you should visually check your blind spot every time. The ones on my prior cars were good, and definitely saved me a few times but there were plenty of times had I not looked myself an accident would have occurred.

 

[Dave Mac]

I just rented a car that had an audible warning and it got annoying REAL fast. I much prefer the fact that the warning only sounds if you start moving toward a car that’s in the blind spot.

 

[Bob M]

In our local neighborhood there is one place where if I have cruise control on to keep me at 25mph, when I hit the same exact spot, which is a slight curve, I get 4 loud chirps and the brakes engage. The other day on the freeway with cruise control on, as I passed 2 slow moving trucks loaded with pallets on my right the brakes engaged hard and in that situation, I worry about a close following car behind me as this created a hazard.

 

[puzz1ed]

Model 3 has poor rear visibility and small side mirrors. The new blind spot warning alarm is fine but for this class of car they should have put lighted LEDs in the side mirrors as others have mentioned. IMHO, they skimped on safety here in favour of cheaper software. Personally, a warning on the display is not useful unless the whole display lights up. Every time you look at the display, your focus is off the road and your eye focus has to change from far to near.

Similar to this is the often flakey software auto wipers instead of a real rain sensor. Perhaps these could be improvements in later production versions.

 

[Dave Mac]

In our local neighborhood there is one place where if I have cruise control on to keep me at 25mph, when I hit the same exact spot, which is a slight curve, I get 4 loud chirps and the brakes engage. The other day on the freeway with cruise control on, as I passed 2 slow moving trucks loaded with pallets on my right the brakes engaged hard and in that situation, I worry about a close following car behind me as this created a hazard.

Bob,

That sounds like it has nothing to do with blind spot collision detection.

 

[Cperry]

Maybe a visual cue that is noticeable in peripheral vision?... Like the entire lane/vehicle render area softly blinking red if signal is on and a car in blind spot... If it was obvious/large enough it might alert you without sound or direct vision needed. The red line is not obvious enough to see without looking directly at it, as you mentioned that is an extra step compared to other systems. Just a thought.

Like a yellow light in the side view mirrors. I didn’t realize my MX didn’t have that feature as most modern cars do now. I still would have bought it probably but that is an expected feature.

 

[CBPfromTN]

In our local neighborhood there is one place where if I have cruise control on to keep me at 25mph, when I hit the same exact spot, which is a slight curve, I get 4 loud chirps and the brakes engage. The other day on the freeway with cruise control on, as I passed 2 slow moving trucks loaded with pallets on my right the brakes engaged hard and in that situation, I worry about a close following car behind me as this created a hazard.

Same here. I was using EAP/FSD and on a curve on the interstate and in the left lane while an 18 wheeler was in the right lane. My car braked very hard as I guess it thought the truck was in front of me IN MY LANE, but it wasn't in my lane...Obviously there is going to be a learning curve and as much as it shocked me when it happened, I now know to watch for that to happen again.

 

[Sandiegodoug]

That happens to me all the time, lots of trucks on the interstate. Funny, it doesn’t do it for cars or vans.

 

[AltLogic]

I like it the way it is. First, I have my mirrors adjusted so I do not have any blind spots. I don’t need LED’s. I only want to be alerted if I make a mistake and the system is working properly. I have yet to hear a chime. Just like I want.