Autoblog

We've all done it; you're halfway through a lane change and suddenly a horn sounds and snaps you to reality. Whether you failed to check your blind spot adequately, or just plain oblivious, Ford's introducing a two features to help you out. The Blind Spot Mirror and Cross Traffic Alert with Blind Spot Monitoring System will arrive in 2009, and one offers a low-tech solution, while the other appears to be a Volvo feature trickling down.

Elegantly simple, the Blind Spot Mirror cleverly integrates a convex mirror into the regular mirror glass, much like the generations-old side-reducing mirrors available in other markets with a concave area to aid in viewing blind spots. The Cross-Traffic alert system uses radar to monitor traffic perpendicular to the back end when reversing. During forward travel, the radar system is used to detect and warn of vehicles traveling in your blind spot. The radar tricks sound to us like Ford leveraging Volvo's BLIS system, that monitors blind spots and lights a pilot LED when there's a vehicle there, and we worry that it will make drivers even less attentive, but then, we realize nobody is paying attention now, so if this rig raises awareness, road safety should improve. Ford's planning on bundling these new safety features along with reverse sensing and rearview cameras to create a more comprehensive portfolio of electronic safety aids in response to customers indicating a desire for better mirrors and safety systems. Press release after the jump

[Source:Ford]

One of the most common accidents that occurs when merging is when one vehicle -- the one that's changing lanes -- hits another vehicle slightly behind it and to its side because the driver of the first vehicle couldn't see the second one in his mirror. To prevent this from happening, Mercedes-Benz has developed a new safety feature called Blind Spot Assist, which it plans to debut on its S-class and CL-Class models.

Similar to a system already developed by Volvo, the new safety feature employs six short-range radar sensors located in the front and rear bumpers that monitor the zone to the side and rear of the car on both the left and the right. If another car is driving alongside in the blind sport area, the system will display a red warning symbol in the associated side mirror. If the driver ignores the warning and then turns on their indicator, the red warning symbol with start to flash and emit a warning sound inside the car.

While we're sure such systems will prevent accidents, they could lead to a generation of drivers that are largely unaware of vehicles around them and who rely solely on such gadgets to keep them out of trouble.

[Source: Mercedes Benz]

You don't need no stinkin' Volvo to experience BLIS(s) -- for 2008, the Buick Lucerne is fitted with lane departure and blind-spot warning systems. The Lucerne offers classic GM big-sedan ethos, with lots of content, wide, cushy seats and restrained, handsome styling. Now, when you're motorvating down the interstate, listening to your Buick 8, an amber lamp will illuminate in the gauge cluster, and a chime will toll three times to indicate you're about to encroach on someone else's road space. If one of the ever present morons on the road decides to hang out in your blind spot, the Lucerne uses proximity sensors behind the rear fascia to detect the car and warn you with an indicator in the side mirror. Buick's safety gear will also be offered on Cadillac's STS and DTS, making GM Luxury that much safer. Now if they could just develop a "blinker on for the last 60 miles" warning system, or a "stay the hell out of the fast lane if you're doing 53 1/2 MPH" light in the cluster, we'd be good. Okay, okay, we'll admit, the stereotyping is stale. Maybe we're just mellowing with time, but we appreciate the merits of a Lucerne.

[Source: Edmunds]

Blind spot detection systems that warn drivers when a vehicle is playing hide-and-seek in your blindspot using visual and audible alerts have already debuted on production vehicles. Volvo's got such a system on the new S80 and Audi on its Q7. Driveaware is a third-party company that took a different approach than the OEMs when developing its new product called LaneFX. Rather than detecting an oncoming vehicle, LaneFX automatically moves the corresponding power mirror outward to expose a vehicle's blindspot when the turnsignal is activated. The kit can be universally installed on any vehicle with power mirrors and also features ParkFX that tilts the mirrors downward when reverse is engaged. Check out a video of the LaneFX in action here.

UPDATED: Missed an important qualification that LaneFX does not automatically move a side mirror, but only when the turn signal is activated. Also, LaneFX does not claim exclusivity on the technology that allows up-down movement of the mirrors when the car is put in reverse. Oh yeah, the company's name is Driveaware, not DriveAware. Now we return you to your regularly scheduled reading...