What happened to substituting side mirrors with camera?

In the US the DOT mandates that all cars have side mirrors.

steph280 said:

I recall a while back Elon said Tesla will eventually have side cameras instead of side mirrors. Did they abandon the project? With the Dumbo ear size mirrors, Tesla sure could benefit from this.

BMW i8 has this already.

https://www.facebook.com/businessinsider/videos/10153318157614071/

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A BMW i8 based prototype has this already.

From the video: "The system isn't perfect, and BMW is working on how it can be incorporated into current safety regulations."

Laws can be and are changed to adjust to current technology. It will be a matter of time. I used to work for BMW and they had side cameras planned more than 15 years ago for the 7 series cars. I think back then cameras weren't good enough in low light to be able to replace mirrors. That's definitely the case today.

At least one owner has done it:

Rear view mirrors replaced with cameras

Laws about rear views differ from one jurisdiction to another. Most state vehicle codes specifically require mirrors for rear views. I think I read somewhere that recently the US Department of Transportation have taken up a work group to come up with a universal vehicle code on rear view equipment. It will probably be a few years until cameras replace mirrors.

at the beginning tesla had it
but it was never released I guess.

Algbc said:

at the beginning tesla had it

but it was never released I guess.

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Yes, because of the aforementioned regulations.

Tesla was hoping the traffic laws would be updated quicker than they were. I believe there were some other demo cars which were shown with cameras instead of mirrors, but to date I believe only Japan has changed the laws.

There is a lot of pressure on legislators from many car companies to allow cameras in place of mirrors because mirrors are a major source of drag on all cars at highway speeds.

Not only drag, but noise.

Manufacturers have gone to extreme lengths to modify even their headlights to direct airflow away from the mirrors.

Rear side cameras can also give additional information to auto driving systems. Many benefits besides offering a rear side view to the driver.

Could also include side, front, up and down looking cameras from that vantage point. Could really lock into lanes with that info.

Interestingly, the Bolt has a camera OPTION on the interior rear view mirror. However, since the camera presents a "flat" image, the user has to refocus to a "close" viewing distance unlike a regular mirror and many owners aren't a fan.

cab said:

Interestingly, the Bolt has a camera OPTION on the interior rear view mirror. However, since the camera presents a "flat" image, the user has to refocus to a "close" viewing distance unlike a regular mirror and many owners aren't a fan.

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I spent some time with a Bolt that had this feature. At first, I though it was a great idea, but after a while found that it was uncomfortable to use. I then realized that when looking through a mirror, your eye remains focused at infinity, but when you look at a screen, your eye has to adjust to a closer "surface". This is made worse, for example, by those using bi-focals like me when the mirror is high. The bi-focal issue may not be as bad for side mirror/monitors, but I think I've flipped my opinion on this and prefer old school mirrors.

cab said:

Interestingly, the Bolt has a camera OPTION on the interior rear view mirror. However, since the camera presents a "flat" image, the user has to refocus to a "close" viewing distance unlike a regular mirror and many owners aren't a fan.

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why would anyone buy GM electric cars? after gm killed their own EV1 I don't think i'll support them.

Algbc said:

why would anyone buy GM electric cars?

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because they're electric, and electric is good

scottm said:

because they're electric, and electric is good

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I'm referring to the documentary who killed the electric cars. Back in 2002 GM had a full electric car 1000kw power but they halt it and never reproduce them again until now..

scottm said:

because they're electric, and electric is good

Algbc said:

I'm referring to the documentary who killed the electric cars. Back in 2002 GM had a full electric car 1000kw power but they halt it and never reproduce them again until now..

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Yes, but there's a school of thought that an electric car, any electric car, is goodness because it displaces an ICE car on the road. By most accounts, the Bolt EV is a credible and competent BEV.

For me, GM's ongoing shenanigans in trying to stymie Tesla's ability to sell cars in Michigan and elsewhere are more of a negative than what they did to the EV1 years ago. One can make the argument that with the Bolt EV, they are trying to atone for their past sin of "killing the electric car". However, it's kind of hard to overlook their present sins.

I think instead of replacing the side mirrors, Tesla has instead decided to focus on replacing the driver. I don't think Autopilot checks the mirrors before changing lanes.