Anyone recognise this? USA citizens may NOT want to answer this due to plausible deniability if something were to happen in the future... I often approach an intersection believing I can cross it safely, only to find in the very last moment, when the decision to speed up has already been made, that an entire car has been lurking behind the A-pillar for (literally) seconds. Cyclists, which we have in abundance in the Netherlands, are even worse since the endresult of a collision would be far worse... In my left hand drive car, the right A-pillar is the worst: due to me driving toward the junction, the blind spot moves from the far right toward the junction and if a car happens to be driving from right to left, it can hide in that blind spot until it is (almost) too late and it is so close that it is finally larger than the blind spot. Knock on wood... Imho definitely a design flaw in an otherwise excellent car! Volvo's solution (concept car):
I have the same problem in the UK. The Prius is the only car I have driven where the pillar really blocks ones vision to the side, but there must be others. Toyota,s attempt at mitigating the problem with the tiny triangular windows at the bottom of the pillars does nothing to help. Can you ever remember seeing anything out of them. Pedestrians about to walk on crossings can be completely hidden. John
I think the large pillars are there to form a roll cage. I know there are airbags in the pillars, but there are airbags in the roof rails also. John
I've seen real bad drivers in Volvos thinking they can drive like shit just because their car was designed to be safe.
That’s a problem in (almost) all modern cars. They are just so obsessed about active safety (safety in a crash) that they forget active safety (avoiding crash). Without this obsession cars would have better visibility, lower prize, and lower weight, which would cause lower fuel consumption, better handling, and better performance.
I notice the A-pillar issue in particular in a tight counterclockwise cloverleaf turn: the direction of travel is in the middle of the pillar. I find I'm leaning left, then right: trying to see around it. Someone's working on putting a dynamic image on the A-pillar, filling in the missing portion. Mercedes??
i was driving with my wife yesterday. a lady was talking on the phone and jogging down the sidewalk to my left. she disappeared behind the a pillar, then my wife yelled 'look out'! i slammed the brakes on (only going 10 mph) and the next thing i know, the lady is right in front of the car. my wife said she made a 90 degree turn from the sidewalk right in front of us without looking.
Back to the original question, yes it is a noticeable problem. I have developed a rocking forwards and then backwards motion to ensure i don't any surprises from something lurking in the A-pillar blindspot.
Yeah, I try to do that too. Began with that on my motorcycle which has curved mirrors, but not quite enough curvature to eliminate the blindspot. I was often rocking as if on a horse... Just sat in my father-in-law's Renault Espace from 2002. It is literaly only about a quarter of the thickness of the Prius. So either the roof gets flattened the moment it rolls over or Renault know something Toyota doesn't... (BTW my Volvo has curtains in it and is considered to be a safe car and has only a little over half the thickness of the Prius.)
