The New Volvo S80's Blind Spot Detector

I commuted into the Cars.com office today in the new 2007 Volvo S80. This is an important redesign for Volvo, and because it’s the company’s flagship, it’s loaded with some fancy safety equipment. This morning’s short jaunt on Interstate 90/94 in Chicago proved that one of them, the Blind Spot Information System, certainly lives up to its name.

There are three parts to the system — a $595 stand-alone option — that drivers will notice. One is the indicator itself, a translucent square at the bottom corner of each front window, right above the tweeter for the sound system. The device that registers if a car is in your blind spot is a camera mounted right next to the side mirror, and the best part is the simple-to-turn-on-and-off button on the center stack that shuts the traffic-nanny off.

I had the sucker on all morning, and I thought in stop-and-go rush-hourtraffic an orange light illuminating every time someone was in my blindspot would be annoying, but the color and intensity, at least indaylight, doesn’t steal attention away from the road. I thought forsure with its location in the corner of my vision it would do justthat, but it was only noticeable when I glanced in its direction. Thedriver’s side was more noticeable than the passenger side light,however, so I must have registered it without really paying attention.Still, it is subtle.

I didn’t really need to use the BLIS during my drive, though. The sidemirrors and my experience as a driver meant I didn’t really need thesystem, but I can see how, on a longer drive with more fast-movingtraffic, a light would definitely stop me from making an absent-mindedmove. That would be worth the $595 price tag to save me from feelingstupid in such a situation.

This morning, the only thing I wished the car had was a paint gun toflag the woman in the Chevy Malibu who had to actually turn her carabout 60 degrees to get it wedged into the small gap in front of me tocut me off. She then proceeded to cut someone off in another lane. Afew miles later she was about 10 car lengths ahead of me. Can Volvo doanything about that? I’d pay double.

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