Tesla Leads Charge To Replace Side Mirrors With Cameras
Should Tesla and the Alliance of Automobile Manufacturers — including General Motors, Toyota and Volkswagen — be successful in their petition with the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, new cars could soon have cameras instead of side mirrors.
Automotive News reports the petition — on the heels of the agency mandating rearview cameras by 2018 in all light-duty vehicles — explains cameras could do the same job as mirrors while allowing for increased aerodynamics:
In light of future greenhouse gas and corporate average fuel economy requirements beginning in 2017, camera-based systems represent an opportunity to increase vehicle fuel efficiency through improved aerodynamics by eliminating externally mounted mirrors.
Current regulations place cameras as a supplement to side mirrors, with Nissan, Honda and Mercedes-Benz offering such systems, while Volkswagen’s XL1 is one of a few vehicles to do away with mirrors by using cameras in their stead.
Seattle-based writer, blogger, and photographer for many a publication. Born in Louisville. Raised in Kansas. Where I lay my head is home.
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Just so we're all on the same page - everyone knows the retail price of a web cam is below $10? Right? http://www.staples.com/office/supplies/StaplesProductDisplay?storeId=10001&catalogIdentifier=2&partNumber=IM1DT2595&langid=-1&nAID=17588969&KPID=IM1DT2595
I'm all for it. I think cars can look better without the mirrors. Sure, as an option it will be a huge markup for fat profit for about a week. Then competition sets in.
It always amuses me when we see something on the "Junkyard find" articles that someone thought would be the next best idea but turned out to be a historical joke; those standard sealed beam highlights, up-shift indicators and motorized seat belts spring immediately to mind. In ten years we'll have junkyard finds of Teslas with no mirrors and sideswipe damage and will be lamenting the multiple "unforeseen" problems because the rear view cameras got covered in grime, the HUD image was washed out in bright daylight and some 14 year-old found out how to hack the software so that it always displayed porn.
One of the reasons this hasn't happened yet is because cameras are actually a fairly poor substitute for mirrors. Mirrors are intuitive and provide more information than a camera; they preserve stereopsis and allow for motion parallax. Move your head, and the image shifts in a way that allows the brain to intuitively understand more of the view.