Ford will be first to market with the Blind Spot Mirror, which improves visibility when changing lanes or parallel parking. The Cross Traffic Alert with Blind Spot Monitoring System is a radar-based blind-spot detection system with the additional capability to warn drivers reversing from a parking space of traffic approaching from the sides. The system will be optional beginning in 2009.
Blind Spot Mirror consists of a sideview mirror incorporating a secondary convex spotter in the top outer corner, aimed at the driver’s blind spot. When traffic enters the driver’s blind spot on either side of the vehicle, it is visible in the secondary convex mirror, thus alerting the driver of potential danger.
Cross Traffic Alert works in conjunction with Ford’s radar-based Blind Spot Monitoring System, using the system’s two multiple-beam radar modules, which are packaged in the rear quarter panels—one per side. The radar identifies when a vehicle enters the defined blind zone and illuminates an indicator light on the corresponding side view mirror, warning the driver that a vehicle is approaching. Cross Traffic Alert uses the radar when in reverse to pick up moving objects within a 20m range from either side of the vehicle.