Could this be the Lanewatch of the future?

[gtman]

Honda's upcoming E electric vehicle won't have side view mirrors. Instead, small aerodynamic cameras are mounted on the doors with left and right side interior dash monitors. Check it out:

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[NoHonor937]

Absolutely not. While it do appreciate not having to worry about mirrors getting ripped off, it’s just too much of a change for the general population

 

[julianzh]

Audi did it first

 

[Rickmeister 48]

If it gets a glitch like a lot if Honda's hi tech, you could be left with no side visibility wich could be potentially dangerous. I'll keep my mirrors.

 

[Gruber]

I like Honda design better than the Audi solution with monitors in the doors, which seems unacceptable to me (see below).
It would seem like cars should have things like this already, but it's not so simple to implement as it might seem. First, it should have very high resolution (camera and monitor) or you will see less detail than in the real mirrors (such as car badges etc.) which is annoying (see below). It has to work well at night, which requires high quality cameras/monitors with very high dynamic ranges. It has to automatically and reliably adjust brightness to the conditions outside and be clear in blinding sun or dark night.

The biggest issue for me is that looking at the monitors requires refocusing the eyes. I might be looking at the mirrors every couple of seconds in some driving conditions. It could be tiring to refocus so frequently, and also, when the eyes are refocused at close objects, they don't see far objects as well at the same time (with peripheral vision).

Of course this makes sense for electric cars because the traditional side view mirrors make so much wind noise. But there are many reasons why this is not being enthusiastically implemented in ICE cars yet.

 

[jred721]

This isnt a bad idea but I dont see this tech going mainstream relatively soon. Still a lot of imperfections to it. And yeah, if the tech ever glitches out which a lot of times can happen, you're left without a mirror.

 

[fenix-silver]

US regulations need to change first to allow cameras to replace mirrors, but I'd imagine it won't be too far off. I just read an article about this very thing. Manufacturers would love to be able to get rid of mirror pods altogether as they surprisingly (or not) contribute quite a bit of drag.

 

[racer]

Judging by my commute, no one uses mirrors anyway !

That said, regulations must change first.. then the technology will take over. Once we are all in out insulated transport pods no one will notice or care.

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