Imagine driving on a rainy high-speed day, the rearview mirror is covered with water droplets, and the windows are also full of water mist, although the rearview mirror may be equipped with a heating function, but when the rain is heavy, this function is like a decoration, at this time want to change lanes will be because of the obstruction of the line of sight, and dare not determine whether there are cars in other lanes, this situation is actually often encountered by old drivers.
But if you change to electronic exterior mirrors, the situation will be much better, and the electronic rearview mirrors that have been present in science fiction movies and concept cars now can be mass-produced and put on the car immediately.
According to the public information of the national standard information public service platform, the new national standard GB15084-2022 for automotive electronic rearview mirror CMS will be officially implemented on July 1, 2023, when it will all replace the old standard released in 2013.
Compared with the old standard, the new standard to be implemented in July this year mainly stipulates that not only can electronic exterior mirrors be installed, but also can replace traditional optical exterior mirrors.
For example, in the new standard, the definition of professional terms such as "camera-monitor system", "mirror and CMS dual-function system" has been specially added, such as camera-monitor system (camera-moonitor system) The official introduction to it is: through the system composed of cameras and monitors, the indirect vision device that sees the rear, side or front vision of the vehicle clearly within the specified field of view, referred to as CMS.
The "camera and monitor" is not actually the electronic exterior mirror we see in some concept cars, but it is replacing the traditional optical exterior mirror.
What are the benefits of electronic exterior mirrors instead of traditional optical exterior mirrors?
In addition to having a better view in rainy days, which we mentioned at the beginning, there are many other advantages.
First of all, not only rainy days, electronic exterior mirrors will have a better view, in most bad weather, electronic exterior mirrors are less affected than traditional optical mirrors.
For example, in rainy and foggy weather, it will not fog, and the visibility in the dark environment is stronger, while the traditional optical exterior rearview mirror will exist in the dark environment Due to the window film, if the window is not driven, the line of sight looking at the exterior rearview mirror inside the car is very dark, and the interior display is also easy to leave a reflection on the window, which further affects the driver's line of sight.
In fact, compared with traditional optical exterior mirrors, in terms of visibility, the accurate advantage of electronic exterior mirrors should be the ability to work around the clock, and the external environment is less affected.
Secondly, the electronic exterior mirror compared with the traditional optical exterior mirror, the viewing angle can be more flexible, open, the traditional exterior optical rearview mirror is also a convex mirror, but after all, subject to physical limitations, even if it can be adjusted but the angle and speed of adjustment is not large, it can be said that daily life basically only provides a main rear view, and we all know that the traditional optical exterior mirror has always had a blind zone on the side of the car.
Audi e-tron electronic exterior mirrors
The electronic exterior rearview mirror can be more flexible at this point, such as providing a rearview picture of different perspectives such as conventional viewing angle, wide angle and telephoto angle, which is more convenient for the driver to judge the road conditions, and through some algorithms to avoid the blind spot of the rear line of sight to the greatest extent.
Finally, electronic exterior mirrors also have an advantage because the volume can be made smaller, the corresponding wind resistance will also be reduced, traditional optical exterior mirrors can increase the wind resistance by nearly 6%, for pure electric vehicles, low energy consumption will be more concerned about. The small volume structure of the electronic exterior mirror will obviously greatly reduce the wind resistance, and the energy consumption can also be reduced.
Of course, electronic exterior mirrors on the car can not be said to be all advantages, there will also be some disadvantages, such as increasing the vehicle purchase threshold, after all, the existence of two exterior cameras and two rearview mirror displays will still increase a lot of costs.
Secondly, although the traditional optical exterior mirror has a simple structural perspective, it is also unexpectedly reliable, and the electronic exterior mirror may have the risk of system crash and black screen, while the traditional optical exterior mirror, although susceptible to environmental influences, has the advantage that it can always be used.
Finally, for the electronic exterior mirrors that extend separately on both sides of the vehicle, in fact, the risk of bumping is quite high, the traditional optical exterior mirrors have a simple structure and are cheap to maintain, and the electronic exterior mirrors may also increase some invisible car costs.
However, in fact, in some foreign regions such as Europe and Japan, electronic exterior mirrors have begun to be on the car, such as Lexus ES300h, Honda Honda e, Audi e-tron and other models in overseas markets use electronic exterior mirrors.
In the domestic automobile market, there are clearly electronic exterior mirrors on the car, and there are already several products, from the million-level Lotus ELETRE to the 100,000-level Beijing Magic Cube and other models.
For example, as Lotus' first pure electric supercar SUV, ELETRE's electronic exterior mirror option price is 16,000 yuan, which can increase the lateral field of view by 50% compared with traditional rearview mirrors, and supports 15 levels of brightness adjustment.
BAIC Magic Cube electronic exterior mirror
The electronic exterior mirror used in the 100,000-level BAIC Magic Cube is said to be able to obtain 3 times more vision than the traditional rearview mirror, while reducing wind resistance by 4%.
In general, from AR-HUD replacing traditional instruments to electronic exterior mirrors replacing traditional optical mirrors, the cockpit of smart cars is becoming more and more electronic, which is also the embodiment of the gradual change in the way we use cars.
If so, would you like to have an optional exterior mirror?