Prototype 1 was mounted on the mirror, and I quickly found that I need to see both wheels. Once you clear the front wheel that's all good, but when you start turning, the rear wheel will cut into the arc of the front wheel.
Prototype 2 was mounted on the rear wheel well side, and this is a different camera, wide angle waterproof. As it is part of a dual camera dash cam CCTV, it actually doubles as recording of accidents and such.
Notice on the time it's double speed - just to make it less boring for you to watch, not trying to impress anyone here.
A few issues:
- Light and darkness, the shadow of the car in bright sunshine. Lights up ahead and so on, at times, you cannot see everything.
- Screen isn't bright enough in bright sunshine. I am currently using the actual dash cam as "monitor", while it would be better with a separate LCD. I already got one, but the dash cam doesn't have video-out.
- This cheap dash cam (about 80 USD) has some software glitch: Screen turns off after 30 seconds. I can adjust it to no time-out, but every time I restart the camera, it goes back to 30 seconds. The same goes for the PiP function, as this is a dual camera dash cam - it goes back to PiP after power-down. The other settings seem to stay, including date and time, so why not these two?
- A good place to mount it: I had it just next to the instrument cluster, which is fine except when turning the steering wheel, the camera is blocked depending on wheel position. I want it to be in the field of view so I can look at the road and still see this LCD out of the corner of my eye. This only shows the side of the car - no use if you then hit another obstacle.
These issues can all be solved, just needs more work.
For those of you who never scratch your rims and "cannot see the problem" - come to Hong Kong and drive for a week, road design is crazy at times here, especially in some privately run car parks. Having a car as large as the Model S doesn't make things any better. Seeing is believing, watch the video. I will make more videos later which will demonstrate clearly WHY it is necessary to have this "off side view".