Blind Spot Monitoring Systems in Driving Safety

In recent years, with the rise and application of Advanced Driver Assistance Systems (ADAS), the Blind Spot Monitoring System (BSD) has gradually entered the public eye. This technology ensures an effortless driving experience and provides essential safety measures. Traditional rearview mirrors in cars often have visual blind spots, making it impossible to see vehicles or pedestrians in those areas before changing lanes. Proceeding with a lane change under such circumstances could lead to traffic accidents if there are vehicles overtaking or pedestrians approaching in the blind spot.

Especially during rainy, foggy, or nighttime conditions, vehicles inherently have visual blind spots. Combined with adverse weather conditions, visibility of rear vehicles becomes even more blurred, posing a greater risk while changing lanes. It's estimated that globally, up to 500,000 traffic accidents are caused annually due to blind spots in vehicles, with the majority of victims being children. For large vehicles such as trucks and buses, the blind spot range is more significant, encompassing blind spots on the front, rear, left, and right sides. Additionally, these large vehicles face a more lethal factor than blind spots—differential steering. Differential steering refers to the difference between the turning radii of the front and rear wheels when the vehicle is turning, indicating that the trajectories of the front and rear wheels do not align.

Once non-motorized vehicles or pedestrians enter the "visual blind spot" of differential steering, significant dangers can arise. They might be inadvertently pulled into the vehicle's path while it turns, resulting in traffic accidents.

The purpose of the Blind Spot System is to eliminate safety hazards caused by these blind spots. BSD, short for Blind Spot Detection, is a high-tech safety feature in cars that utilizes intelligent monitoring probes and other auxiliary devices (such as radar, alarms, display screens, etc.) installed in the vehicle. These components identify and perceive vehicles and pedestrians in blind spots, eliminate visual blind spots, and provide alert prompts to the driver, thereby preventing accidents caused by rearview mirror blind spots during lane changes.

The rapid development of intelligent driving and new energy vehicles has propelled the technological advancement and widespread adoption of blind spot monitoring systems. Numerous small and large enterprises in China have entered this market, including TechMai, Zhengyang Electronics, Ford Technology, Degu Technology, Sensata Technology, and MakerHuiLian. Currently, many models on the market are equipped with blind spot warning features.

Presently, there are three main solutions for blind spot monitoring systems:

Visual BSD: This system recognizes objects in the blind spot through visual imaging, issuing warning alerts to the driver during hazardous situations. It perceives information such as the distance, speed, and direction of pedestrians and vehicles, filtering out fixed and distant objects.

Pros: Can filter out irrelevant areas, can identify obstacle types.

Cons: Higher cost, limited coverage, larger blind spot range.

Millimeter-wave Radar BSD: This system constantly senses the vehicle's surrounding environment during operation through millimeter-wave radar sensors, alerting the driver through audio-visual prompts about potential risks. It maximizes vehicle proactive safety and reduces accident rates.

Pros: Compared to pure visual solutions, it enhances distance and speed measurement, broad coverage, lower cost, widespread application.

Cons: Cannot identify obstacle types, susceptible to environmental interference, higher false alarm rates.

Visual BSD + Radar BSD: This system combines millimeter-wave radar with a blind spot detection camera to detect objects within the blind spot and categorize and analyze them.

Pros: Enhances distance and speed measurement compared to pure visual solutions, capable of identifying obstacle types, distinguishes potentially dangerous areas, reduces false alarms compared to pure radar solutions.