Japan Says Yes To Mirrorless Cars (carscoops.com)

An anonymous reader writes: Last month, Japan became one of the first countries to allow vehicles to use cameras instead of mirrors. "Video mirrors" will no longer be reserved for concept cars. They will likely turn into a huge marketplace for tech businesses and suppliers now that the "Land of the Rising Sun" gave Japanese companies the green light by allowing mirrorless vehicles. While many would argue that glass mirrors work just fine, video mirrors do have some real-world advantages. They can reduce drag and improve fuel efficiency (Warning: source may be paywalled) while improving the looks of a vehicle in the process. In addition, they can capture a wide-angle view that can see blind spots, and they can improve visibility by digitally compensating for glare, darkness or even rainy weather. The first company to supply digital mirrors will be Ichikoh. Their first product will be an interior rear-view mirror named the Smart Rear View Mirror that will enter production on June 28th.

Comments

Re:It's all fun and games

[tomhath]

a normal mirror is never going randomly cut out on you.

I've had a couple that did randomly cut out on me. While driving down the road the glass just fell off the driver's side mirror. Another time the interior mirror came unglued and dropped off the windshield.

Re:It's all fun and games

[ShanghaiBill]

Until your mirror bluescreens on you....

You have a fallback of looking over your shoulder.

Say what you will about oldschool tech but a normal mirror is never going randomly cut out on you.

Except for the blind spots. Rearview cameras are way better than rearview mirrors at avoiding accidents, which is why they will mandatory starting in 2018. Sideview cameras will likely have similar advantages. There may be an occasional accident caused by electronic failure or whatever, but that will likely be swamped by the accidents avoided by the better view.

Mirrors are un-breakable

[DrYak]

Yeah because regular non-electronic mirrors never ever get broken, at all!!!
They are all made of iPhone 8-grade gorilla glass, feature a mithril reflective coating and are encased in adamantium.

(ob staw comic ref)

I suffered more frequently from mirror broken by anonymous dip-shit while leaving my vehicle parked somewhere (when they aren't straigh breaking the whole car), than I've suffered electronics failure since I've started driving cars with cameras on them.

(And that's ignoring the fact that some cars feature a very nice rear camera view, while the back window is absolutely tiny and thus the rear view mirror is useless).

Retractable side mirrors are really a saver on recent cars.

Replacing them with cameras is:
- one protruding item less that will get destroyed.
- less obstacles that interrupt the aerodynamic shape of the car.

Re:It's all fun and games

[rtb61]

I have had my rear view camera routinely cut out on me. In fact nearly every single fucking day. Reversing down my driveway at certain times of day, means the sun will shine right onto that screen and I see nothing. I ain't quite so bad when it shines onto the camera, you can sort of still see what is happening. Night time with insufficient illumination behind the vehicles, reversing lights are simply not bright enough, is also difficult.

Could be just becoming a grumpy old dude but I gotta be honest, over the years in the conflict between automated and manual, I have drifted to manual simply because it is far more reliable case in point, you beaut super automated coffee machines versus a French press, that French press has already way outlasted those three previous coffee machines. If manual works and is good enough, stick to it, automating for no advantage whilst it does generate profits for others will cost you more over the long run, far, far more (that French press was way cheaper than any one of the failed coffee machines, let alone all three combined and the coffee tasted better because I go create the exact kind of coffee I felt like at the time).

Re:$500 mirror

[AK Marc]

Cheap cell-phone optics are probably cheaper than a side-mirror now. Your costs are not realistic, and quite luddite-driven.

Re: It's all fun and games

[Anonymous Coward]

You've never had the sun temporarily blind you via the mirror? Or cars come up behind you at night with their high beams on?

Not good for all driving conditions.

[Lumpy]

Mirrors have far FAR more contrast range than any camera and LCD made.
Mirrors go down to 0.000000000000000001lux for low light visibility.
Mirrors work when submerged
Mirrors have over 8K resolution
Mirrors work in a lot of conditions where even a $1500 video camera fails to get a useable image.

So unless our cars are coming with $4500 4K cameras with FLIR overlay ...

Now I do like the advantage of using some processing, cameras using the computer to do car and motorcycle recognition and alerts, cameras using IR at night to see further than we can, cameras blocking the headlights of the BRAH truck that is raised up 3 feet and has the BRUH blue headlights added that are aimed way too high.