Automobile Blindspots Maintain Getting Greater & Greater

Final Up to date on: twenty seventh June 2025, 08:28 pm

It’s no shock — whenever you take a look at how automobiles maintain getting larger and greater, it may well’t come as a shock that blindspots have been getting larger. And, sure, that’s precisely what a brand new examine from the Insurance coverage Institute For Freeway Security (IIHS) tells us.

“The drivers of America’s hottest vehicles can see much less and fewer of the highway yearly — and regulators aren’t stepping in,” Streetsblog summarizes. “A brand new examine has discovered that the blind spots on a few of America’s best-selling vehicles are rising at a disturbingly quick charge — however pedestrian and bicyclist visibility itself stays a blind spot for federal regulators who persistently fail to mandate that automobiles be designed to cut back the hovering dying charges amongst susceptible highway customers.”

It’s not even about completely different fashions with completely different designs coming to market. It’s standard fashions steadily getting worse visibility over time. Right here’s an egregious instance: the Honda CR-V. Within the CR-V of 1997, drivers may see 68% of the highway space 10 meters in entrance of them. Possibly not wonderful, however not unhealthy. Within the CR-V of 2022, drivers may see solely 28% of the highway space 10 meters in entrance of them!

Hood heights have gotten greater, “A” pillars have gotten thicker, facet mirrors have gotten bigger, and all of this has led to worse visibility. How a couple of visualization? Right here’s how the blindspots of the Chevrolet Suburban have grown from 2006 to 2023:

Ahead visibility has been declining, and, by the way, pedestrian and bicyclist deaths have been rising in the identical time interval. Pedestrian deaths have risen by 37% in 25 years and bicyclist deaths have risen by 42%.

“The across-the-board lower in visibility for this small group of fashions is regarding,” mentioned David Harkey, IIHS president. “We have to examine whether or not it is a broader development which will have contributed to the latest spike in pedestrian and bicyclist fatalities.”

And right here’s a shocker: there’s no federal check requiring that automakers measure blindspots. So, yeah, it’s simply not necessary, apparently.

“The Institute needed to develop a complete new technique simply to measure visibility with easy-to-use transportable digital camera rigs, since earlier methods required cumbersome testing procedures, poring over engineering drawings, and even using lasers,” Streetsblog provides.

The excellent news is that cameras and ADAS (superior driver help methods) have been bettering visibility and deterring accidents in some instances, however that doesn’t change that poor visibility — particularly trying ahead — is a big downside. One sometimes isn’t going to depend on digital camera feeds besides when backing up or attempting to park. And, whereas ADAS undoubtedly prevents some accidents, if a bicyclist or pedestrian is about to cross the highway in entrance of you and also you step on the accelerator, likelihood is, you’re going to hit that individual — exhausting.

Whereas quite a bit has been achieved to make vehicles safer, particularly for the individuals within them, and advances in sensor know-how have helped to stop accidents, the shortage of concern for blindspots and the truth that they appear like they’re on steroids now are main issues the auto trade ought to be working to handle. Hopefully this IIHS examine and its plans for continued work on this subject will assist to make that occur.