[Animats]

China has already mandated an end to retractable outside door handles and electrical inside door handles. That takes effect January 1, 2027. There were two major incidents where people could not get out and could not be rescued.

The powered charger port door would make sense if there were robot chargers that used it. Tesla demoed that, but people disliked the snake robot approach. Technically, a snake robot is ideal for that, but too many people fear snakes and tentacles.

Rear view cameras are better than rear view mirrors. The field of view is better.

[jjav]

> Rear view cameras are better than rear view mirrors. The field of view is better.

As long as they work, yes. This is part of the trend to make everything more fragile with lots of failure conditions. There are many electrical parts + software needed to make that camera+screen work, any of which might break eventually.

A mirror is just a mirror, failure modes are few and unlikely. Even if it cracks it still works.

[Animats]

> A mirror is just a mirror, failure modes are few and unlikely. Even if it cracks it still works.

Are your side mirrors adjusted properly? Do you know the SAE standard on how to adjust your side mirrors? [1] (The actual paper is paywalled.)

[1] https://www.caranddriver.com/features/a15131074/how-to-adjus...

[BeetleB]

> Rear view cameras are better than rear view mirrors. The field of view is better.

Rear view cameras are useless when mud/rain get on them. Mirrors continue to work just fine.

Try living in Seattle.

[RajT88]

Me and my wife's car have both rear mirrors and backup cameras. I use both. Cars should have both.

I would not mind rear facing cameras for checking blind spots on the highway.

[formerly_proven]

There are some good designs which prevent them from getting dirty. For example, Mercedes and VW put them in the rear badge and they're only exposed when needed.

[barrkel]

Rear view mirrors are needed all the time. We're not talking about reversing cameras here.

[croes]

> Rear view cameras are better than rear view mirrors. The field of view is better.

Oh yes, we are

[barrkel]

Rear view cameras are not a replacement for rear view mirrors, is my point. You use the two for different things. A rear view camera trying to replace a mirror would need a cleaning and wiping solution, something that we use rear window wipers for with analogue mirrors.

[formerly_proven]

Which one is meant seems to be a major point of confusion in the thread.

[BeetleB]

We're talking about replacing mirrors. They're always needed!

[stasomatic]

Digital rear view cams are a thing too. My car has one now when I drive a car without one I feel handicapped.

[BeetleB]

Weird comment. This whole thread is about them. Of course I know it's a thing. My question is how do you look in the rear when mud is on the camera? Or lots of water droplets?

[stasomatic]

I don’t understand what you are asking. I drive in very rainy Miami and I haven’t had an issue, but not much mud here. I do have a rear wiper and the mirror can be switched to analog.

[BeetleB]

The thread is about cars that don't have an analog rear view mirror.

(Personally, I didn't know that was a thing, but I do know people in older cars buy rear view camera mirrors where they replace the analog one).

[stasomatic]

Apologies, I didn’t grasp that the Luce didn’t have an actual rear view mirror, the kind with mirrored surface. I couldn’t find any pics online. My Hyundai I5’s just flips between analog and digital with a pull on the housing. So does my brother’s Blazer EV and my dad’s Lexus TX, this isn’t new.

I’d think lacking an analog mirror would run afoul of some regulation, but then there’s that Polastar that doesn’t have a rear window:) Cheers.

[cmrdporcupine]

Rear view cameras are a) 2d not 3d like a physical mirror, so judging depth is inferior on them b) a nightmare for most of us in the second half of our lives who lose the ability to quickly adjust focal length between near and far (not a problem with a real mirror) c) yet another potential failure point and d) a dumbass idea in the parts of the world that salt their roads

The various cameras on my polestar2 are routinely getting caked in salt and dirt in the winter 30 seconds after I start driving down the road. I fail to understand why I'd want this for a critical system like rear or side view mirrors.

I drove in a Polestar4 with its rear view camera only view the other day. Did not like. Would not want as my only option.

I did drive in a Bolt that had dual mode and that was fine.

[kefabean]

And e) although more relevant for wing mirrors, you can also move your head around to change/increase the field of view if needed. Try doing that with a camera + screen.

[soco]

I never needed to clean the reversing camera lens so far, in over a decade. It doesn't matter if it's a rear view or reversing, either would get the same amount of mud right? So probably some makers are just better at choosing a placement for the optics.

[panxyh]

Rear view cameras might be better than mirrors in terms of field of view. This doesn't make them objectively better. Disadvantages are well argumented in the article. They are an useful accessory but shouldn't replace real vision.

[aaomidi]

Real vision is fucked when you can’t actually see what’s behind your car.

Cameras will prevent a lot of unnecessary property damage, and more importantly, fully mitigate risk of killing humans/animals that are behind the car and outside the field of view.

[skywhopper]

No one is arguing cameras shouldn’t exist. In fact, back up cameras are mandatory in the US. But replacing mirrors and windows with cameras is bad, actually.

[panxyh]

Yes, their purpose and usefulness is obvious. As a supplement. Mirrors should be left as they are.

[bityard]

Lots of cars don't combine the rear-view mirror and backup camera into the same thing. (And shouldn't.)

[afh1]

Why not both? My Honda has mirrors and a rear view camera. I always check both before backing up. The camera is viewed on a small (for today's standards) LCD screen (with physical buttons, no touchscreen) that also serves as the radio.

[panxyh]

The discussion isn't as much about a common backing camera (which also falls under 'useful accessory' I mentioned), but about cameras replacing mirrors.

[croes]

> Rear view cameras are better than rear view mirrors. The field of view is better.

But you lose the natural depth perception and need to focus differently

[beAbU]

You realize that mirrors can also have a wider fov by making them concave, right?

[wlonkly]

-vex