
Millions of vehicles have unexpected, dangerous front blind zone - smacktoward
https://www.wthr.com/article/13-investigates-millions-vehicles-have-unexpected-dangerous-front-blind-zone
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siruncledrew
Something needs to be done more proactively about mitigating the impact of
cars on people/animals/objects around them.

Cars (and the distrust of the ability of the people driving them) are the
cause of so much worry and concern.

\- There’s anxiety over walking, biking, or running places (not even that far
away) because of the worry over cars.

\- No parents I know want to let their kids ride their bikes across the
neighborhood to their friends’ houses or to/ from school because of the worry
over cars.

\- Some people even drive their dogs to the park instead of walking around the
neighborhood because of the worry over cars.

Cars basically monopolized the idea of transportation, and in effect it is
also hard to separate from them. “Sharing the Road” doesn’t work in practice,
as the sharing is never enough to make anyone not in a car feel comfortable
about it.

We need some kind of government initiative or legislation or something
meaningful to equip cars and safety features to mitigate the dangers of cars
for the rest of the world around them. It’s going to take forever to be
implemented if car manufacturers just roll out these things as “premium
features” - that’s like enabling a system of charging extra for a car to come
with seatbelts.

I’ve heard, “Well, I grew up in the {60s, 70s, 80s} and we would play in the
streets and be ok around cars.” Yea, well, go look at the specs of cars from
those decades. People weren’t driving around in F-150s, Chevy Surburbans, and
260hp 140mph sportscars like they are today.

~~~
AnimalMuppet
It was the 1960s. 1966, to be exact. My mother let my brother and I (5 and 4,
respectively) _walk_ our bikes down the road (no sidewalks) about three houses
down, to the dead-end street, and we could ride them there.

A bit later, she heard the sirens. The police cars and ambulance went right
past our house, in the direction of the dead-end street. She came running out
of our house, to find my brother and I sitting on our bikes at the entrance to
the dead-end street, watching the show.

It turned out the "show" was a neighbor boy about my age. He got hit crossing
the road. He's been in a wheelchair ever since.

So, yes, we did a lot of things in the 1960s. Some fo us got away with doing
them. Some didn't. For those who didn't, the consequences could be pretty
heavy.

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mjmasn
I spent a few years in Singapore in the 90s aged 5-8. We were taught to cross
the road with a hand in the air. I think this is still the case for children
in SG today. It wouldn't help so much in a driveway situation but at
pedestrian crossings it can be the difference between getting home safely or
not.

Kids should be taught to be aware of their surroundings and that if you can't
see the driver of a vehicle, then they likely cannot see you either.

Ultimately though, all that is really just a last-resort safeguard against
driver inattention and/or poor parenting. The driver of the vehicle should be
100% responsible for their actions, regardless of safety assistance features
like cameras.

Even in my own experience of rear view cameras, pedestrians crossing close to
the rear of the vehicle are obscured by the rear pillar until the last second,
so it doesn't make mirror checks optional. I imagine similar issues exist for
forward-facing cameras where a child walking towards then across the front of
the vehicle could be obscured by the A-pillar until it's too late to stop.
Again, the driver is responsible to check those areas by moving their head or
even getting out of the vehicle and physically checking the blind spot if
there are any doubts.

~~~
intopieces
I was taught to look the driver in the eye when you cross in front of a
vehicle - if you can't see their eyes, don't cross! I also do raise my hand
and wave, usually with a smile, just to further say "thanks for keeping your
foot on the brake." It seems silly/paranoid but the number of times I've seen
people roll through stop signs makes it seem worth it to me.

~~~
Piskvorrr
Looking in the eye doesn't work any more: people look _at_ you, but they
completely fail to register you. If you're not exactly car-sized
(walking/biking/motorbiking/driving a damn LIGHT RAIL TRAIN ffs:
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0tt8f_2kyRA](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0tt8f_2kyRA)),
you're a part of the scenery, IDCLIP style, and drivers WILL ignore you.

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mindslight
The obvious solution is to raise the ground clearance even further! But
seriously, what else would one expect from taking _trucks_ , customarily
driven by people engaged in _heavy work_ and painfully aware of their
awkwardness, and marketing them to checked-out suburban consumers? The larger
the vehicle, the more you need to inspect around it before moving - like when
renting a moving truck, it's good to have a friend that can pop out and spot
for you. People that take hopping in their vehicle and zooming off for granted
are not going to do this work every time. Although of all the bad results from
the ignorant zeitgeist of the early oughts, this _is_ pretty minor.

I had thought this article was going to be about A pillars. With modern ones I
feel like there is an insufferable blind spot right in the arc of my turn. I
know about increasing fuel economy and crash standards, but it feels like
there has got to be another way.

~~~
carterehsmith
As for the A-pillars, I read about a solution somewhere, goes like this:

\- There is a camera on the 'out' side of the A-pillar;

\- There is a screen on the 'in' side of the A-pillar;

\- The car tracks driver's gaze and projects the camera view on the A-pillar
screen, so as to stitch together the views from the windshield, A-pillar
screen, and the side window.

The result being, it looks like the A-pillar is not there at all.

I wonder if some car already has that. Iirc some teenager presented similar
solution on a science fair.

~~~
Piskvorrr
TBH, I am thinking of doing a poor man's version of this with a RPi Zero, a
fish-eye lens, and a small display (times two, one for both sides). Not sure
how well it would mesh with the airbags, crumple zones et al, though; camera-
to-display latency might be an issue, too.

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axaxs
I feel absolutely conflicted about this. On one hand, I do think this should
be a catalyst to require front camera and or collision detection, especially
if it saves lives. On the other, I find it reprehensible that these tragic
stories are fingerpointing and blaming car companies, given their context.
They more point to the drivers not paying attention, in my opinion.

~~~
arpa
And parents not keeping an eye on their very small children.

~~~
pixl97
You can keep an eye on them, and those children will still take off full speed
charging headlong to their deaths.

In the relatively recent path they just died and families had lots more
children to make up for the loss. Now we have far fewer children and we are
expected to watch then 24/7 without a lapse in observation or concentration.

~~~
t-writescode
Leashes are a thing for sufficiently small children. They look like backpacks
or monkeys.

Absolutely blind and uphill alleyways are a thing I will always panic about
while trying to drive out of.

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chupa-chups
Couldn't open the link, got a cloudfront error instead.

archive.org to the rescue:

[https://web.archive.org/web/20200209133850/https://www.wthr....](https://web.archive.org/web/20200209133850/https://www.wthr.com/article/13-investigates-
millions-vehicles-have-unexpected-dangerous-front-blind-zone)

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noodlesUK
How much does this vary with the height of the driver? I primarily drive a
2005 CRV, which in my opinion is much larger (higher) than I would want, and
I’m about to go check how big the blind spot is, but I’m pretty sure it isn’t
15 ft. My parents have a newer version of the same car and it’s hilariously
larger than the older one, it isn’t even the same class of vehicle as far as
I’m concerned. Why do ride heights keep getting higher?

~~~
t-writescode
Go and test it! Find a flat bit of road with a curb and draw marks on the curb
or put a carton or crate or something on the curb all the way until you can
see it from inside your car :)

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t-writescode
This blind zone and the one behind me are two of the most stressful areas of
blind zone while living in the city. It’s made worse when

1) people will aggressively creep up in cars against my rear; and,

2) when pedestrians decide to cut between cars when walking at a stop light.

~~~
Piskvorrr
The lightest tap of the brake pedal will not yet actuate the brake, but will
illuminate the lights. Turns out the middle brake light tends to be sloped and
most intense at ~5 ft. People tend to get the message and increase the
distance...

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foxyv
My 2013 Honda Fit sure does, have to duck and hunch over to make sure I can
see around the front A-Pillar. The front windshield has such a shallow slope I
can barely see to the front left without moving my head constantly like an
Owl.

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King-Aaron
Yet another argument against the sad progression towards SUV-only car brands.

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ptah
Does proximity sensors not help for this?

~~~
0ld
Noone likes their proximity sensor going mad over the car in front of them in
a traffic jam

~~~
Piskvorrr
Don't stop fender to fender then - that's a feature.

