Industrial - Bachelor
Mirage is an automatic hazard detection system that uses the side view mirror as a vantage point. Highly efficient sensors detect road anomalies up to 300m in advance. These hazards are geotagged, and both their location pin and hazard type are reported to a community-based software platform. As more users drive, more data is collected, and live updates inform the warning system located on the vehicles rear view mirror.
Rear view mirrors are one of the most fundamental safety features in a vehicle, giving drivers awareness of the traffic behind and beside them. Beyond visibility, they act as a shared point of communication on the road. Drivers use them to read the intentions of others, and road users rely on being seen in them. This made the mirror a natural starting point for the project. Already a trusted part of every vehicle, it sits in the driver’s line of sight and carries meaning for other road users.
Currently, ambiguity is a major source of stress on the road. The signals that exist do not cover the complexity of everyday scenarios, which causes confusion between road users and encourages decisions based on uncertainty.
In the absence of clear signals, active transport users rely on symbolic methods to communicate and to judge whether a situation is safe. They read the speed of surrounding vehicles, the positioning of those vehicles, and the markings on the road, piecing these cues together to decide how to move.
Rear view mirror anxiety was another major concern, especially among the observation group. Five of the six participants worried about informing those behind them of hazards, and feared being rear ended while doing so.
Hazard reporting apps and systems aim to address concerns of informing those behind them, and a large portion of the research participants reported using these systems. They inform drivers of upcoming road anomalies, but they depend on active use of handheld devices to keep their databases current, which brings back the same safety trade-off.
“Even if the hazards right in front of me, I don’t think I have the courage to put myself in harms way…”
Survey participant on reporting hazards as an active transportation user
Hazard reporting systems ask road users to do the one thing they shouldn’t: look away. Whether driving, walking or riding, reporting means juggling an app while navigating complex traffic, with every glance at a screen a moment not spent watching the road. Faced with that trade off, many people choose safety over reporting. The hazards they pass, from debris and potholes to blocked paths and unsafe crossings, remain unmarked for everyone else. Over time, this leaves a gap between what road users encounter and what the system knows, and everyone travelling the same route is left in the dark. The result is a system that depends on people to report, but makes reporting the riskiest part of the journey.
Subtle pulses of light indicate to driver that Mirage has found and reported a hazard, taking away any concern that they haven’t done their part.
When driving into warning radius, internal warning system illuminates a light bar underneath the rear view mirror and reveals a distance to the hazard.
This warning allows drivers to better prepare for abnormal scenarios while remaining conscious of distraction. Warning fatigue was found to be a common reason users do not adopt safety technology, so Mirage purposefully keeps its warnings subtle enough to avoid fatigue, but clear enough to inform properly.
Mirage lets drivers protect others without taking their eyes off the road. Each journey sharpens a shared, live picture of road conditions, so warnings come earlier, signals are clearer, and uncertainty on the road gives way to confidence.
Clearer roads. Safer people. Zero reporting.
Charlotte is a systems minded designer and an engineer at heart. Drawing on her engineering training and a design mindset, she approaches problems analytically, builds empathy for the people she designs for, and shapes products that work well and feel right.
"*" indicates required fields