- The Kia EV9 I'm reviewing right now has one of the best tech features on the market.
- Blind-Spot View Monitor, which is on some Kia, Hyundai and Genesis cars, displays a live feed of your blind spot when you flick the turn signal.
- It's super helpful for changing lanes, and every car company should get with the program.
There’s a lot of new tech entering cars these days: Streaming, subscriptions, TV-sized touchscreens and ChatGPT. A lot of it comes off weird and a little scary. The best features are the simplest—the ones that solve an actual problem and make you wonder how you ever lived without them.
One of the best tech examples is Blind-Spot View Monitor from the Hyundai Motor Group. You’ll find it on cars from Kia, Hyundai and Genesis. Every time I get in a vehicle that has it—most recently, the Kia EV9 I’m reviewing right now—I’m left stunned that it isn’t more common. Truly, this should be on every new vehicle.
Blind-Spot View Monitor is, I’ll admit, not the sexiest or most inspiring name. But it’s extremely useful. Here’s how it works. When you flick the turn signal, a live camera feed of the relevant blind spot pops up right in front of you in the digital gauge cluster. Signal left, and you get a real-time view of what’s in your left blind spot in a circle on the left side of the screen. Signal right, and the same thing happens, but on the other side.
Of course, it's best to always physically check behind you when changing lanes. Or, as one Redditor kindly put it in a response to someone asking about blind-spot cameras on the /r/whatcarshouldIbuy forum: “That’s why you have a FREAKING NECK! Turn your head, you lazy bastard!” This person has a point. They also clearly have not used Blind-Spot View Monitor.
Much like the more common blind-spot sensors, blind-spot cameras provide a nice, added layer of protection—even if they shouldn’t completely replace using your “freaking neck.” They’re a big help when changing lanes on the highway or making turns in urban environments packed with pedestrians and cyclists. And the feature comes in handy especially in larger cars like the beefy EV9. In an era when vehicles are bulkier than ever and blind spots are getting increasingly, well, blind, the use case for this kind of capability is only becoming more apparent. (It would be great if cars just went on a diet, too.)
Kia, Hyundai and Genesis aren’t the only brands offering this kind of feature. Teslas have the same thing as standard equipment. A key difference is that in Teslas, the camera view pops up in the central screen, not right in front of you. (The Tesla Model 3, Model Y and Cybertruck lack a driver-facing display entirely.) Honda used to sell something called LaneWatch, which showed the passenger-side blind spot when the turn signal was engaged. But that came in lieu of, not in addition to, a normal blind-spot monitor. Newer Hondas have moved to a more traditional blind-spot monitoring system.
Rivian recently added this to its SUVs and trucks through an over-the-air software update. And any other carmakers with the right hardware already installed in their cars should seriously think about doing the same.
Do you agree? Or, more likely, do you think I'm extremely dumb? Drop a comment or contact the author: tim.levin@insideevs.com
