Mounting satnav on windscreen a threat to safety

bmwpc · Occasional Visitor Joined: Dec 26, 2007 Posts: 10

Start at the problem not the solution. The "problem" is the nav unit or whatever is being used. If you are to look at it, you are already diverting attention away from your driving. So unless your unit is blocking an absolute primary spot on your windshield where you are actually looking through, there is NO distraction or reduction in your usable viewing area. IE Ig I stick the unit on my rearview mirror it certainly would not hurt my forward vision but it would hurt my rearward vision, Now put that same device in the upper corner of your windscreen where you don't look for traffic, unless low flying planes frequent your driving route, you are using "viewable" area but no area that you normally or even infrequently use while driving. The bottom line is, if you place it anywhere not in your direct line of view, you have to take your eyes away from driving no matter if it is for 1/2 second or 5 seconds. And, no matter where it is, if it is located IN your driving line of sight, you degrade that by a variable amount. It is logically impossible to not have it one way or the other.

bmwpc · Occasional Visitor Joined: Dec 26, 2007 Posts: 10

Duddy · Posted: Fri May 13, 2016 4:02 pm Post subject: Sat Navs obscuring view

As a ex Police traffic Officer and accident investigator I fully agree that Sat Navs etc should not be obscuring the drivers view.
Now I've retired I spend 6 days a week helping out at my sons garage. One of my jobs is taking cars and light vans for the MOT test.
When I get a vehicle with a sat nav or phone carrier obscuring my view I remove it, sometimes the owner objects until I point out if I leave it up the vehicle will fail the MOT.
Anything greater than 10mm withing the wiper swept area and in a band 290mm wide cetrered on the steering wheel is a failure and anything (other than official stickers) greater than 40mm wide within the wiper swept area is also a failure.
I took a phone carrier down that would have been directly in front of me when driving and but below my eye line. when I saw the driver, the carrier would have been directly level with her eyes and when I asked why she had the carrier there ? reply "I like to see who's calling me" Biting my lips I asked Does'nt it obscrure her view to the front.
Reply "Yes, but I've only bumped into 1 cyclist a bit" Evil or Very Mad

Sometimes I wish I was back in the job.
_________________
HUAWEI P30 Pro (new edition) with Speedtrap Alert & alcatel1 for SatNav
CoPilot 10 with CamerAlert
RoadHawk in-car video
Reading glasses getting thicker as is my waist
Retired but want to go back to work for a rest.

sussamb · Posted: Fri May 13, 2016 4:10 pm Post subject: Re: Sat Navs obscuring view

petrolhead276 · Posted: Fri May 13, 2016 4:48 pm Post subject: Re: Missing Logic to the Argument

freedy50 · Lifetime Member Joined: Oct 22, 2005 Posts: 63

About time this was taken seriously. People just seem to think now that the middle of the windscreen below the mirror is the standard position to put a sat nav. Confused

Maybe they should bring in a law about it if people don't change what they do with these? At least it's something the police could see straight away when they drive past.

I use the item below on the right hand side of the dashboard with my sat nav attached. Its not as if you have to keep looking at it anyway as it tells you where you're going and tells you when to turn. You may have to look just to see what road you're on or the name of the road you've turned into.

jonrome · Occasional Visitor Joined: May 06, 2006 Posts: 24

Some years ago I was told by an MOT examiner that it was a fail if any part of the swept area of the windscreen is obscured.
Aviva had an ad campaign for their safety app which showed a phone in the middle of the windscreen. It ran for a long time but I like to think they eventually took notice of my comments even though I got no acknowledgement back from them

M8TJT · Posted: Fri May 13, 2016 6:29 pm Post subject:

JimmyTheHand · Frequent Visitor Joined: Apr 16, 2005 Posts: 386

tiddler · Occasional Visitor Joined: Dec 28, 2006 Posts: 27

Best place in my view is on the bottom right hand corner. That way you are not blocking your view of the road. Never place one in the middle of your screen.

Kar98 · Posted: Sat May 14, 2016 1:09 am Post subject:

rf065 · Lifetime Member Joined: Oct 10, 2005 Posts: 80

sussamb · Posted: Sat May 14, 2016 8:39 am Post subject:

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