I was backing up slowly out of my garage.
My wife, who can be a bit stealthy at times, approached from around the back of a 2023 Infiniti QX50 Sport carrying a garbage can, and suddenly I heard a series of loud beeps.
I’ve heard them before in the QX50, but never like this before. The problem is that I was already starting to back up a little, and she didn’t notice. On the QX50 and many other Infiniti models, you will hear these alerts when someone gets close to the vehicle.
This was new.
I immediately stopped, turned off the car, and jumped out to ask her about it. She said she had seen me backing out the whole time, moving slow. She merely stepped back to the other side of the garage and wasn’t that close, but I appreciated how the alerts worked anyway. (I also appreciated that I didn’t bump into her.)
Sensors are in the front and rear bumpers and scan directly behind and to the side of the vehicle. Now that I can think back about this minor incident, which could happen in a garage quite often, I realized that the chimes sounded softly at first as she approached, then dinged louder. Modern cars have the ability to now only
It works something like a weather signal. The sonar scans for obstructions and measures the distance between a moving object and the vehicle. If the object gets closer but the driver doesn’t react, the sensor will chime louder. This all works in a fraction of a second.
You can also adjust the chimes for sensitivity, although I’m glad I didn’t. This was not a serious issue, but in other cases where someone doesn’t notice or another vehicle in a parking lot is approaching, I’d rather deal with the annoyance of the dings than end up with an actual ding.
And, I wondered about people who have little kids. I’d rather listen to chimes all day than bump into a small child. Life is just too chaotic, and there are so many distractions all around us and on our phones.
What’s really unusual about all of this is — you can’t create these scenarios. In over 13 years of testing and reviewing cars, with at least a half dozen Infiniti and NIssan models that have come in each year, I’ve never had someone approach the car by accident in the garage.
That’s a good thing. I will say, it was helpful from the standpoint of being able to see and hear how the alerts work, notice how they get louder and get your attention, and to pass along the results of the test — that the alerts worked quite well.
I’d even make this bold statement — the alerts like this are worth it for those who can appreciate technology that is helpful and keeps people safe. Even if they are carrying out the garbage.
