The live video view that pops-up while you drive the 2023 Hyundai Santa Fe is amazingly helpful. I’ve seen this preview window on other cars, most notably by Honda, but while testing the Santa Fe for a week, there were multiple times when the little window showed me something that was much more helpful than just a side-mirror view.
For one, the old-school side mirrors don’t always work the best. In winter, they fog over and, if you’re like me, you have to crane your neck to look at them. Glancing over to the right side mirror can cause distraction as you watch for cars — but also stop looking forward.
Blind-Spot View Monitor is also incredibly easy to use. Whenever you use the turn signal, it pops up on the left or right.
During my Hyundai Santa Fe test, I had several cases where seeing a live video to the side of the vehicle helped a ton. One long drive to a major metro in my area involved plenty of twists and turns — since the traffic is always intense. On a long stretch of highway leading to the downtown area, I used Blind-Spot View Monitor and noticed when a large semi was coming up on my right. Would I have seen it with a normal side mirror? Yes, for sure. The semi was hard to miss, but the advantage was that I was actually still facing forward and merely glanced at the “real” mirror on the right side of the vehicle.
I also noticed that vehicle size is a factor here. I like the design of the Santa Fe because it has straight, predictable lines — this is a midsize SUV meant for hauling a family. Smaller cars are just easier when it comes to sight lines because the car is smaller and blends into traffic. The Santa Fe is big enough that it can be slightly difficult to get your bearings (like any larger vehicle), so the video in the instrument panel was even more helpful.
On another drive, I kept noticing how Blind-Spot View Monitor became more normative for me — at first, I was not used to it, even though I’ve tested many cars that use it. (I own a BMW that doesn’t use this tech — or even have any blind spot monitoring at all.) On this drive, I started feeling like the tech was incredibly useful for seeing other cars.
And that’s when it hit me — I feel this is technology that should be in every car, as an added safety aid to augment the real mirrors in a car that we’re all accustomed to.
I’m not sure what it would take, likely some sort of licensing arrangement (depending on who actually invented the tech). Back when seat belts were first invented, by Volvo, the tech was open-sourced to any automaker because of the clear benefits.
For now, I liked how this driving aid made it easier to see cars coming up on my left and right, long before any beeps or alerts made me look a little closer. You can inspect the lane far easier while facing forward. You can make a lane decision instead of a lane mistake.
