tech today corners of a vehicle to monitor adjacent lanes for object motion. The sensors transmit a microwave-frequency radar signal, and then look for the reflections of those signals from nearby objects. When driving on a road or freeway, the system creates a monitoring pattern that’s approximately one lane wide (12 feet) on either side of the vehicle with a coverage distance of 30 to 40 feet from the B-pillar. When the system detects an object entering or leaving these areas, it will illuminate the indicator that either you or your technicians have installed on or near the A-pillars. These indicators let the driver know that someone is traveling beside them and that they shouldn’t attempt to change lanes.
Vehicle Safety and Blind Spot Monitoring, Part 1 Blind-spot monitoring solutions inform drivers of nearby vehicles, providing life-saving alerts. To enter this category, begin by understanding what’s available— and outfitting a shop vehicle to use for demonstrations. WORDS BY DAVE MACKINNON
profitable upgrades to your clients.
Continuing our deep dive into collision avoidance system brings us to a discussion of blind spot monitoring systems. Before we get into the nitty gritty, it’s worth noting that most consumers don’t know these systems are available as an add-on to their vehicle. As we move through the discussion of the technology, function and installation, think about how you can market these
What is a Blind Spot Monitoring System? There are two classes of blind-spot monitoring solutions: camera-based and sensor-based. This article will discuss sensor-based solutions, and we’ll save the camera systems for the next issue. Sensor-based blind spot systems typically use a pair of relatively short-range radar receivers mounted in the back
50 Mobile Electronics January 2021
Active Warnings In a similar fashion to the parking sensors we talked about in the last issue, blind-spot warning systems provide an active warning to the driver if they activate the turn signal when there is a vehicle in the adjacent lane. In this scenario, the system will produce a clearly audible beep warning. Some solutions will flash the visual indicators to let the driver know not to change lanes or turn. As a reminder, the benefit of an active warning solution is that the driver doesn’t need to remember to use it. There are no screens to look at. If there is danger of an accident, the system attracts the driver’s attention. False Alarm Prevention Technologies Historically, blind-spot warning systems had issues with false alarms. They might have falsely indicated there was a car in an adjacent lane when in reality, the vehicle was two lanes over. All of the solutions currently on the market are well into their second or third generation. As such, the radar field shape and sensitivity have been fine-tuned to provide reliable alerts. Many of the current offerings integrate with the vehicle through the CAN data system to acquire turn signal and vehicle speed information. Likewise, these systems begin monitoring once the car is traveling above 15 miles per
