For decades we have assumed that each new car model was safer and more practical than its predecessor. Effective brakes, rigid structures, electronic driving aid systems …
But a study of Road Safety Insurance Institute (IIHS) of the United States highlights an uncomfortable paradox. Many current vehicles are more difficult to drive in urban environments, because of increasingly large close blind spots.
The easy example to understand. Someone changes its veteran truck in the early 2000s for a brand new compact SUV of 2023. Although the new model has more technology, parking chambers, assistants of all kinds and is even smaller in outer dimensions, behind the wheel feels more clumsy in small spaces. Turn in a narrow street, park next to the sidewalk or maneuver in a garage seems more complicated.
Is it just lack of custom? He IIHS He has shown no: it is a real design problem.
Intrigued by the increase in the figures of pedestrian and cyclist abuses in the United States in the last 25 years (in contrast to the strong reduction of deaths between vehicle occupants), researchers from the IIHS They decided to check if the immediate vision capacity around the car had changed with the passage of generations.
The result was clear: yes, it has changed, and a lot. Analyzing six very popular models in different generations, from the late 90s to 2023, it was found that the visible area immediately in front of the car has been significantly reduced, especially in the SUV and Pick-ups.
Figures that concern the study of IIHS
In traditional cars such as Honda Accordthe loss of close visibility was barely 7-8%, something almost negligible.
On the other hand, in a Honda CR-V From 1997, the driver could see 68% of a 10 -meter front semicircle. In the 2023 model, that percentage was reduced to 28%. That is, the current driver sees less than half of what he could see a quarter of a century ago.
Other models such as Jeep Grand Cherokee (50%) and the Ford F-150 (36%) They also showed notable descents of near visibility.
At a higher distance, between 10 and 20 meters, all vehicles offered a field of vision greater than 80%, but that does not solve the problem: most abuses and collisions with cyclists occur in that immediate space in front of the car morro, just where the modern driver sees less.
But why do we see worse with new cars?
The study indicates several culprits: higher and bulky caps, the result of SUV fashion and protection demands in frontal shocks. Larger retrovisors, who help on the road, but block vision in the front corners. Pillars to thicker, necessary to reinforce the body and comply with resistance regulations, but that create blind spots in turns and pedestrian crossings.
Without forgetting the vehicle’s own height, which causes the driver to look from above, but with a dead dead angle right in front of the car.
It is true that modern cars have 360º cameras, proximity sensors, emergency automatic braking or cross traffic alerts. However, experts warn that this technological dependence not always replaces good natural visibility. The systems can fail, be poorly calibrated or simply not reacting as quickly as a critical situation.
He IIHS He acknowledges that this first study is not enough to establish a causal relationship between loss of visibility and increased abuses, but correlation is evident. The institution already prepares a broader analysis with a greater number of models. Meanwhile, it raises the need to rethink the design of cars, balancing passive and active security without sacrificing driver’s ability to see the most vulnerable users on the road.
