The facelifted Audi A6 is the first of Ingolstadt’s machines to abandon conventional front indicators; instead, they’re located on the side mirrors. Other brands are set to follow suit. This is a bad, even stupid, idea. When you hold a conversation with somebody, do you look at their ears? Of course not. You look into their eyes and try to interpret their facial expression. This is hard-wired into people’s brains, so we’re pretty good at it. Cars have faces too and car makers go long ways to make them expressive and individual. Some are supposed to be cute. BMWs for the supposed benefit of [überho] prestige are supposed to look masculine. And some are unintentionally genital. But it’s not a stretch to say that all intend to be recognizable. So why make them less readable? You’re in traffic, you want to see what the other guy is going to do, so you look at his car’s front, hoping for a signal. Sure, blinking mirrors are better than no blinkers at all. But I surmise that the average driver sees them a split-second later than he would front-mounted ones. And locating indicators on mirrors sucks anyway. They are more prone to break in normal driving conditions than fender-mounted indicators. Will you be able to get a replacement high-tech-mirror for your Audi 15 years hence? I doubt it. And some side blinkers are downright dangerous; the ones on the VW Golf glare into your peripheral vision in rainy or foggy driving conditions. Car makers should stop introducing empty styling gimmicks.
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I’m all for having them in both places, but at LEAST in back & front. Mirror only blinkers suck. In Chicago I can’t tell you how many cars I’ve seen driving around with broken side mirrors…..
My favorites are on some sport bikes I’ve seen that have red/white/blue (not sure if they are actually legal, only seen them on a webpage) that point left or right.
On a motorcycle, side mirror blinkers kinda make sense as they may help aerodynamics or something (look at Suzuki’s sportbikes), but on cars, yeah, they make little sense.
With today’s LED technology, a blinker can easily be put right under that headlight in a one-inch band, and be more than adequate to signal your intent to turn the wheel. It would not take away from the design of the car whatsoever.
More blinkers, please. Anything to get these people to understand that when I put them on, I’m changing lanes so don’t do anything stupid like try to squeeze into a lane that you wouldn’ve have tried to squeeze in if I didn’t have my blinkers on.
Most manufacturers have been integrating the turn signal indicators into the headlight assemblies for years, so I’m not sure what the advantage of this is. If it is in addition to the front mount indicators, then I would be all in favor of it (in which case it would be an evolution of the fender mounted repeaters common on German and Japanese cars).
I’m surprised there are no regulations about this. Likewise, even though they’re less elegant, I’m all for amber blinkers to differentiate them from brake lights.
Oh, and it would be nice if people actually USED their blinkers!
When the mirrors in the turn signals are in addition to the front signal I’m all for it. That’s the set-up in my TSX. I feel that when the second signal is in the mirror as opposed to the fender, it makes it easier for people diving high riding vehicles (SUVs, CUVs) to see the signal.
However, for that to be the only signal is not great as the side mirrors are prone to damage. Can they even get away with this in regards to all the regulations from the US government.
What bugs me more than the placement of turn signals, is drivers who don’t activate said devices.
So I am a little confused… Is Audi just not putting turn indicators on the front of the car (such as a separate lamp, or built into the headlight unit);
Or are they replacing all previously fender mounted auxilliary blinkers with ones in the mirror housing?
I am certain that there are FMVSS and DOT regulations that REQUIRE that a turn signal apparatus needs to be in the front of the car. Having them ONLY on the mirrors is dangerous.
I prefer a front signal and a fender signal (as well as the rear).
More turn indicators are what they should be including. I’m pleased to see that a lot of recent cars have fender mounted side blinkers, which European companies had been doing for years. Although in the A2 Jettas, they put plastic plugs where an indicator would go. I fixed that on my car for about $30. Even though LEDs are bright and easy to see, mirror indicators should be in addition to front blinkers.
Another pet peeve of mine: Red turn signals. I will never buy a vehicle with red turn signals on the back of the car. Surprising, European cars sold in North America have been coming with them in the past few years, and Honda loves red turn signals. A good example of a Euro car with them is the A4 Jetta wagon. Very stupid on the part of manufacturers. I can see amber much easier than I can red in fog, rain, or snow. Plus it’s easy to temporarily mistake a red turn signal for a brake light. There’s a reason why European lighting laws don’t allow red turn signals. Okay, rant over.
I’m amazed the US doesn’t mandate side-facing marker lights.
Motorcycling or even when driving in very dense traffic, I frequently get merged into; the cars with marker lights (and someone who uses their signal, naturally) allows far more reaction time than without, often resulting in a less-overly-dramatic reaction from the offending driver.
I think they should return to those wonderful old British “indicators”–the big arrow that flopped out of the side of the car from the B pillar or somewhere of the sort…
Well, since you brought it up….
Ever since they started incorporating lighting cluster assys., where the blinker is in the same assy. (and, as such, directly adjacent to the headlight, they are virtually useless if you are waiting on an oncoming vehicle with it’s headlights on. You can’t see the blinker until the vehicle is up close. Useless. Put them back where they were, somewhere else on the front of the car away from the headlight so you can see them.
Then, when you do that, put up camaras to detect when someone makes a turn and doesn’t use their blinker and send them a big ticket that can’t be argued in court. Or just go ahead and kill ’em right there.
krazykarguy: it’s the latter; in your words, “they are replacing all previously fender mounted auxiliary blinkers with ones in the mirror housing.”
My caveat: this is for the European version. I’m not 100% sure how it will be for the U.S. A6.
But as far as I know, regulations stipulate the angle of visibility of a turn signal, i.e. from where you can see them blinking. The mirror blinkers fulfil that reg, so DOT is OK, I think.
Regulations are one thing. But I would say this is yet another example of what design-psychologist Donald Norman, in his book Emotional Design, says “reflects the old-fashioned German automobile design culture, which proclaims that the engineer knows best, and considers studies of real people driving their vehicles irrelevant.”
Are you sure this is about the turnsignals not the sidemarkers?
In Europe (the Netherlands at least) the side markers aren’t required (prohibited). Luckily so, because they’re darn ugly and just unnecessary distractions. Maybe Audi incorporates the side markers in the mirrors for it being less ugly.
There’s a reason why European lighting laws don’t allow red turn signals. Okay, rant over.
Not completely true though. Here in the Netherlands when you import a US (spec) car it can get past the technical compliance check because it is not strictly prohibited to have red turn signals per se. It’s a bit of a grey area, but most US cars on the roads just have red turn signals still.
I didn’t think that was legal to remove them from the front/rear.
Can’t wait to see the lawsuits. You’ll see “retrofitted” front-of-car turn signals before you can say “$50 million awarded for accident”
Car makers should stop introducing empty styling gimmicks.
Hah! Hard to break an industry of a 100+ year old habit!
–chuck
Indicator broken – watch for middle finger…
It was funny when I was a kid, and its still funny now – because apparently it is a reality at Audi.
This is the most retarded thing i have ever heard of.
Although come to think of it, no one uses the damn things anyway.
You imply that Audi is removing turn signal lamps from the front of the vehicle, but I doubt that is the case. According to the NHTSA, they are required at the front of the vehicle:
http://tinyurl.com/4l2fcr
Edit:
Damn I just realized I read the trucks, buses, mpv’s regulations. I feel dumb.