What sort of blind spot detection should I expect?

[KalTorak]

I flip my turn signal on.
There's a car in the adjacent lane which I'm about to merge into.
The car doesn't seem to warn me.
I know there's sensors and cameras over there... should I expect a warning?

 

[glide]

Blind spot warning on your $100,000 car? Of course not.

 

[animorph]

It'll be coming for AP2+. Not here yet, though Tesla used to claim it using ultrasonics. You may or may not get a side collision warning and avoidance (people have noticed it) if you let the Tesla try to lane change into an occupied lane, but that would probably scare everyone involved.

 

[cryptyk]

It works about 10% of the time. Not sure why this has been a perpetual Gap for Tesla . Every other car, even economy cars, have rock solid blind spot detection using the same hardware.

 

[malcolm r b]

I flip my turn signal on.
There's a car in the adjacent lane which I'm about to merge into.
The car doesn't seem to warn me.
I know there's sensors and cameras over there... should I expect a warning?

I am very surprised that there isn't a blind spot detector; a very useful safety feature. The latest download I received showed additional cars in front but still nothing about what is next to me. I can already see the cars in front so that seems unnecessary. It would be an obvious addition considering most other new cars have this feature.

 

[S4WRXTTCS]

It works about 10% of the time. Not sure why this has been a perpetual Gap for Tesla . Every other car, even economy cars, have rock solid blind spot detection using the same hardware.

There are a lot of things wrong with the blindspot monitoring in the Tesla.

The indication/display is in the Instrument cluster, but most people will be looking at their mirror.

The indication often lags quite a bit, and this is likely due to latency in the display electronics.

The ultrasonic sensors seem to miss things. The blindspot monitoring systems I like tend to be radar based, and not ultrasonic based.

For those of you with AP2/AP2.5 I do expect blindspot monitoring to improve immensely because they'll eventually use information from the rear facing side cameras.

 

[mihoung]

any ideas when we can expect a update for blindspot monitoring. I used to try cars with this function and very surprised this is not available for Model 3.

 

[glide]

any ideas when we can expect a update for blindspot monitoring. I used to try cars with this function and very surprised this is not available for Model 3.

Who would know that outside of Tesla?

 

[animorph]

The August update seems like a possibility for new blindspot detection. It would probably be needed for the "Mad Max" mode on the dev screen shot we saw earlier.

 

[PrGrPa]

Closest thing now is the use of the ultrasound proximity detectors on the dashboard. Cars near the rear sides of your car show the white to red ‘glow’ on the back left or right of the car depending how close they are.

Position your mirrors properly and take a look over your shoulder. Blind spot indicators are not a substitute for proper observation, merely a driver aid.

 

[lqs1259]

It is very disappointing that the Model S I just paid $85K does not have a good blind spot detection/warning compares to the $30K Subaru I purchased for my son last year....

 

[Troy916]

Closest thing now is the use of the ultrasound proximity detectors on the dashboard. Cars near the rear sides of your car show the white to red ‘glow’ on the back left or right of the car depending how close they are.

Position your mirrors properly and take a look over your shoulder. Blind spot indicators are not a substitute for proper observation, merely a driver aid.

If your mirrors are properly aligned as the SAE recommends (see

) you do not need to even look over your shoulder...

 

[Dan Baldwin]

Tesla's current blind spot detection is an embarrassment.

 

[BLKTSLA]

I'm going to echo the sentiments everyone else has said, but I also put together some suggestions on how to improve the blindspot Alerts.

 

[snd92]

FYI, EU spec of the side mirrors have less blindspot area than US spec.

 

[Dan Baldwin]

I'm going to echo the sentiments everyone else has said, but I also put together some suggestions on how to improve the blindspot Alerts.

I like this, thank you. But I still can not understand why, right now, there is not something implemented ? I would have to say that right now, there is NO practical blind spot detection. Really makes no sense to me.

 

[BLKTSLA]

I like this, thank you. But I still can not understand why, right now, there is not something implemented ? I would have to say that right now, there is NO practical blind spot detection. Really makes no sense to me.

Agreed, but its always been non-existent, and if you have a Tesla older than Q4 2014 you don't even have Autopilot or the active proximity censors...pretty crazy. My guess would be that they would need to invest in additional hardware and the retrofit LOE would be too much to take on in the midst of ramping M3 and the cost would be prohibitive for most owners.

 

[scottm]

A lane change warning signal (of any kind) is not needed if instead Tesla chooses to eliminated blind spots entirely. Which they can do with the tech on the car!

Simply show the view of what the side camera is seeing, display that on the console when a signal is being used. Looking at the screen is all the warning you need. No need to trust some techno-sensor assessment of what kind of object might be in the lane next to yours ... use your own eyes on the video display: thing there? don't turn. it's that simple.

A lot of Honda's do this for the passenger side, they have a camera under mirror pointing backward in lane next to you. What you see on the center console while signaling is much better information than what you can actually see in the mirror itself! After a driving bit on a test drive I learned it's possible to ignore that mirror completely because it has basically become useless with the camera setup.

 

[mbuebel]

If your mirrors are properly aligned as the SAE recommends (see

) you do not need to even look over your shoulder...

troy916 really helpful, thx.