BLIS with steer assist

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Fursty Ferret
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Joined: Sun Jun 16, 2019 9:29 am

Post by Fursty Ferret »

Just an idle question - if you have the Intellisafe Pro pack, what is your understanding of the option "BLIS with steer assist"? How did the dealer explain it to you, if at all?

Silver Moose
Posts: 344
Joined: Wed Dec 26, 2018 9:10 am

Post by Silver Moose »

BLIS, on its own, simply monitors for vehicles in your blind spot & illuminates orange indicator lights in the mirrors.

Steering assist comes into play if you somehow miss the warning and indicate and try to pull out - you will get an audible alarm & the car will nudge your steering back.

Note that normal lane assist is temporarily disabled during indicating, so this takes over (possibly more forceably, though I've never been daft enough to test it).

Real name Carl
T4 Inscription Pro ordered 13/12/2018 - collected 30/3/2019
Bright Silver/Charcoal
Convenience pack, Intellisafe Pro, 360 camera
Fursty Ferret
Posts: 7
Joined: Sun Jun 16, 2019 9:29 am

Post by Fursty Ferret »

Yeah, thought so. You should be aware that the system isn't fitted to the XC40, V60, or S60. You only get the flashing light in the mirror.
Silver Moose
Posts: 344
Joined: Wed Dec 26, 2018 9:10 am

Post by Silver Moose »

Thanks, didn't know that - though I guess you still get the audible alarm??

Can't see how anyone could miss the lights anyhoos.
Real name Carl
T4 Inscription Pro ordered 13/12/2018 - collected 30/3/2019
Bright Silver/Charcoal
Convenience pack, Intellisafe Pro, 360 camera
Fursty Ferret
Posts: 7
Joined: Sun Jun 16, 2019 9:29 am

Post by Fursty Ferret »

Lights only. :-)
sanjaime
Posts: 9
Joined: Sat Nov 03, 2018 12:00 pm

Post by sanjaime »

I find the BLIS on my XC40 very poor for picking up approaching/overtaking motorcycles , scooters, mopeds and cyclists.
The BLIS on my old XC60 was much better with a single orange light inside the car.
Having to get used to the mirror arc of orange lights and take extra care to look out for overtaking two wheeled traffic as often no BLIS alert.
drjamesr
Posts: 34
Joined: Sun Feb 10, 2019 4:54 pm

Post by drjamesr »

Can't see how anyone could miss the lights anyhoos.
Can be done easily.

The system works fine in overcast conditions, but the light is less visible in sunny conditions anyway and harder with the distracting shiny chrome side air vent knob reflection in the wing mirror with the sun in certain directions.

The warning light is red rather than yellow, a poor choice for the colour blind, as I found, only once so far, that the warning light had merged into the colour of the overtaking car.

Most problematic is that you can’t readily see the flashing light in peripheral vision with your eyes straight ahead (my last recent eye test found very good peripheral vision). This may be because looking at the mirror automatically your eyes focus on the view of cars behind and the close-by warning light blurs out. You have to rotate your head twice, look into mirror and then again to look to see if light is on. Perhaps this is a symptom of my age I use varifocals needing but I had none of these issues with my former system (Q3). This had a yellow light in the outside of the mirror casing nearest the driver that was much more obvious and shaded from the sun. It also had adjustable brightness, which if it applies to the XC40, I can’t find it. It was a good example of well thought through functionality.

It does presumably help that the light gets brighter according to the user manual if you choose to ignore the static light warning, changing to a flashing which must be a lot easier to notice, but that's a near miss situation.

None of this helped by the large blind spots created by the tall rear head rests, when other marques use the push down type that are so uncomfortable you have to pull them up to sit in the back seats, ensuring safety ( the electric fold down option for the XC40 doesn’t seem to exist for the UK and as far as I can tell the rear headrests are fixed permanently).

My conclusion is that a long test drive, eg the 48 hrs offered by many makes, is well worth it before finalising a choice. There is far too much to absorb in a short spin - not least don’t let the dealer operate the Sensus for you as they did on all of my three test drives of different versions.
XC40 Inscription, D4 AWD, Pine Grey, black leather faced, 19” double spoke #924, Xenium, Intellisense surround, Winter/Htd wheel, Spare wheel
Silver Moose
Posts: 344
Joined: Wed Dec 26, 2018 9:10 am

Post by Silver Moose »

drjamesr wrote: Sat Jun 22, 2019 11:09 am ( the electric fold down option for the XC40 doesn’t seem to exist for the UK and as far as I can tell the rear headrests are fixed permanently).
Electric remote folding headrests exist in my MY19 Inscription Pro.

Edit: Just remembered that power-folding rear seats & headrests were part of the £350 Convenience Pack. Pre MY20 this was an amazing value pack that was positively foolish to omit.
Last edited by Silver Moose on Mon Jun 24, 2019 10:31 am, edited 1 time in total.
Real name Carl
T4 Inscription Pro ordered 13/12/2018 - collected 30/3/2019
Bright Silver/Charcoal
Convenience pack, Intellisafe Pro, 360 camera
PC40
Posts: 131
Joined: Tue Feb 13, 2018 10:43 pm
Location: UK

Post by PC40 »

The rear headrests fold manually by using the levers on the backrest. A small movement folds the headrest, a full movement folds the seat back.
Electric folding rear headrests do exist and are fitted in my car.
XC40 T5 First Edition|Bursting Blue |delivered end of March 2018
drjamesr
Posts: 34
Joined: Sun Feb 10, 2019 4:54 pm

Post by drjamesr »

The rear headrests fold manually by using the levers on the backrest. A small movement folds the headrest, a full movement folds the seat back.
Electric folding rear headrests do exist and are fitted in my car.
Thanks very much for this

I was hoping it would do the trick but the only 'levers' on my rear seats are at the top of the seat and are more like catches. The only thing they do is unlock the back of the seat to fold it down. No effect on the headrest. This is on a UK car. I can’t see any other lever.

Am I missing something?
XC40 Inscription, D4 AWD, Pine Grey, black leather faced, 19” double spoke #924, Xenium, Intellisense surround, Winter/Htd wheel, Spare wheel
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