I hate the tv screen rearview mirrors. Give me back my window!!!
As someone who has a Volvo now, and likes their attention to detail, I’m willing to hold judgement until I can try it in person. Apparently the author of this said it was interesting in person.
If it’s an OLED, with a high refresh rate, that can get really dim at night, and handle rain / glare well, I’m down. And wider and unobstructed FOV is a pretty compelling concept. But a bright ass low frame rate screen is pretty distracting and nauseating, and that’s where a lot of these things fail.
And wider and unobstructed FOV is a pretty compelling concept.
That’s the problem - you’re replacing a window with a camera. Some rain, dust, or a bike rack, and your view is now worse than the window.
No doubt. It isn’t obstruction proof. The obstructions are just different. You’re not dealing with heads, head wrests, pillars and roof lines, you’re dealing with dirt, rain, etc.
If the brightness and frame rate are not an issue, I’d probably take the camera over the mirror. I live in a fairly temperate area, and my Volvo’s current camera doesn’t get obstructed that often. But it’s also just a back up camera.
I test drove my last car on a shitty winter day so I could get real with it.
How much of influence did Volvo have over polestar 4? I know they started to go their separate ways and Volvo stopped funding polestar quite recently.
The collaborate on R&D, but their budget is their own now that their selling their own cars, and not just augmenting Volvo badged cars.
I, too, dislike screens as rearview mirrors. When you use a normal mirror, you are focusing on something that is likely around the same distance from your eyes as the car in front of you. With a screen, you’re focusing on the screen instead of the light reflected off of it, meaning that your eyes are going from focusing on something that’s a few car lengths ahead of you to something that’s a few feet from you, then back to something that’s in the distance again. It takes noticeably longer to check what’s going on behind you and takes your eyes further “off the road” as a result.
I didn’t know the sun roof has electrochromic film on it. That’s a pretty brilliant way to remove a little weight and some moving parts. I’ve only ever seen that used for privacy glass in offices or bathrooms.
There a few cars out there that use the tech
Interesting. Who else is doing it?
Mercedes-Benz. The oldest reference I found was in a 2015 model: https://www.caranddriver.com/reviews/a15105357/2015-mercedes-benz-sl400-test-review/
One quote that never ceases to amaze me is “If you want to know what will be standard tech a decade from now, look at a Mercedes S-class.”
Camera dies can’t see out back. Genius
Use side mirrors until you get it repaired.
Driving without a center mirror, or with an obstructed mirror, isn’t exactly a unique thing. You don’t even need a center mirror in many places to pass a driving test. The side mirrors are more important.
