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Blind Spot Monitor Sees What You Don’t

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In celebration of Motorcycle Awareness Month, Volkswagen is highlighting their commitment to ensuring safer roads in South Africa, a country with one of the highest road accident rates and road accident deaths in the world. To highlight this ambition together with Volkswagen’s new IQ.Drive features, the People’s Car brand has launched an innovative campaign which uses a new and innovative paint technology to showcase the impressive functionality of Blind Spot Monitoring, a unique feature that sees what you don’t.

According to the *South African Government’s website, road fatalities are a major contributor to unnatural deaths in South Africa with approximately 40 people per day losing their lives on the road; this amounts to over 14 000 deaths annually. Many accidents are caused by objects in drivers’ blind spots, which we simply cannot see, from overtaking vehicles and delivery drivers to scooters, motorbikes, and cyclists. Volkswagen’s IQ.Drive Blind Spot Monitoring is a high-tech radar system that scans the side and rear of your vehicle and alerts drivers to potential hazards that they otherwise might not see via a lighting display on the side mirror.

Dedicated to creating safer journeys for all road users, Volkswagen is creating awareness for not only their Blind Spot Monitoring feature, but also the dangers of the blind spot together with road safety awareness through a series of installations that people literally never saw coming.

With the use of a specialised paint known as ‘Black 3.0’, which is so dark that it absorbs light and removes all definition, Volkswagen has created a series of “invisible” life-size installations that are showcased in selected Volkswagen Dealers and public locations that feature objects commonly found, or rather missed, in a driver’s blind spot. The objects inside each installation, upon initial inspection, are “invisible”, as they are undefinable painted in Black 3.0 against black darkness, but when onlookers scan the installation using an Augmented Reality (AR) filter the actual object in front of them is revealed, highlighting not only the dangers of the blind spot but the benefits of Volkswagen’s Blind Spot Monitoring system, together with other IQ.Drive features.

“As leaders in the automotive industry, we cannot simply ignore the dangers on our roads in this country. As the People’s Car and with safety as one of our core DNA principles, we are committed to ensuring not only safer roads for our drivers, but for all, no matter their mode of transport,” said Bridget Harpur, Head of Marketing for Volkswagen Passenger Cars Brand. “Our ‘Blind Spot’ campaign is designed to highlight some of the innovative features of our new IQ.Drive system that seek to make safe driving intuitive but also to create awareness for road safety issues, for all, on their respective journeys.”

The ‘Blind Spot’ campaign is the first in what will be a series of safety initiatives from Volkswagen which aim to shed light on road safety issues in South Africa and highlight the technology available to Volkswagen drivers to assist in these challenges.

Views Since 15 July 2022: 54

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Alan Straton

Chief Cook, Bottle Washer and Broom Mechanic at MyPE
Passionate about Port Elizabeth and definitely NOT packing for Perth. Alan's ethos is epitomised in the words of Nelson Mandela; "I have fought against white domination and I have fought against black domination. I have cherished the idea of a democratic and free society. If need be, it is an ideal for which I am prepared to die." See more articles by Alan.