Same with my older Toyota. They stuffed airbags in them, which is nice, but I've had several times where an adult on a bike is completely obscured, with my passenger having to scream "stop!". After the second time, I now bob my head like a maniac to look around them.

Can't wait for displays on pillars, to make them appear transparent.

The pillars on my 2006 CR-V haven't been a problem. Did pillars get bigger on newer cars, or did Honda use smaller pillars, or what?

They are wide enough that their horizontal angular width could be larger than the horizontal angular width of a pedestrian more than a couple or so meters away but due to their angle there is plenty of the pedestrian still visible.

I spent a while just sitting in a busy parking lot watching people go by and seeing how their visibility changed and I couldn't find any situation where I'd have trouble seeing a pedestrian unless they were far enough away that there was no chance I'd hit them even if I never saw them.

yeah I've had a similar experience with a bike and do the head bob thing now too. glad to know it's not just me

It is a problem with most modern cars, and it is actually for safety reasons. These beams have to support the entire weight of the car in case it flips over in order to protect the occupants.

A rule we have due to giant high center of gravity SUVs. Rollovers weren’t as big a problem when everyone had sedans.

A car should survive a rollover. But when you make them big & heavy, those pillars have to be big and thick and you get large blind spots.

ah interesting, that makes sense witas an explanation given the heavy Tesla base

Also, the instrument cluster is located in the center, outside of the driver's direct view. And most of the important controls for the driver do not have tactile buttons.

Which are those controls?

I drive a Tesla since 2019 and have never needed a touchscreen control for the driving itself.

Same with both of my Mitsubishis. There's a roundabout near where I live that, when approaching it from one angle, the "beam" on the right hand side of the windshield totally obscures the whole road leading to the roundabout from another angle.

I have to shift in my seat to crane around to see if there is oncoming traffic I have to give way to.

They're both 10+ year old cars.

I've never been in a Tesla so don't know if this would work, but you might try getting a small convex mirror (often called a "blind spot mirror") like these [1] at Amazon. I linked Amazon for convenience. They should also be easy to find locally at anyplace that has an auto section like Walmart, or auto parts stores like NAPA, O'Reilly, and AutoZone.

[1] https://www.amazon.com/s?k=blind+spot+mirror

good tip, thank you!