The car rearview mirror, which has been used for decades, is also the time to change
The tide of electronic mirrors is coming.
Author | Ming Cheng
Edit | Juice
For a long time, automotive mirrors have been a fixed component in order to ensure safety.
But from the perspective of reducing the drag coefficient, car mirrors may be one of the components that many car designers want to kill. Previously, because there was no better alternative, such ideas had remained on concept cars and never materialized.
With the intelligent transformation of automobiles, the elimination of rearview mirrors has gradually become possible.
In the past two years, electronic rearview mirrors have begun to gradually rise, and many models such as Avita 12, Polestar 4, Tesla CyberTruck and other models have adopted electronic rearview mirrors, and with the gradual support of policies, electronic rearview mirrors have become a reality.
▲Avita 12 electronic rearview mirror
After the official release of the "Performance and Installation Requirements for Indirect Vision Devices for Motor Vehicles" with the national standard number GB 15084-2022, electronic rearview mirrors will be officially launched in China.
And this will also become one of the future trends of the entire industry, Musk once said on X: "Tesla's future cars will not need physical side mirrors and rearview mirrors!" ”。 As the leader of the new energy industry, Tesla's every move may also cause changes in the industry.
So, as a technology that has been explored for a long time, what are the main difficulties faced by electronic rearview mirrors? And how do the main players solve these problems? What impact will electronic mirrors have on the automotive industry after they are on the car?
01.
New automotive components still face several challenges
On December 29, 2022, the new national standard for China's automotive rearview mirrors GB15084-2022 was officially released, which means that China's vehicles equipped with electronic rearview mirrors can be officially and legally mass-produced on the road from July 1, 2023 - the era of China's automotive electronic rearview mirrors replacing traditional glass exterior mirrors has officially begun.
Since it is to replace the traditional glass exterior mirror, the electronic rearview mirror must have its "excellence". Electronic mirrors have several significant advantages over conventional mirrors.
First, it can expand the field of view of the rearview mirror and greatly reduce the blind zone of the field of view. Traditional optical mirrors have a fixed curvature, shape and size, and a limited field of view. The electronic rearview mirror can adjust the FOV through the camera to obtain a wider field of view, and can also expand the field of view for a certain area in scenarios such as turning and reversing.
▲The field of view expands
Second, the field of view is not affected by high beams. The ISP of the electronic rearview mirror has a strong light suppression and flicker suppression function, which can eliminate the effect of high beam illumination and maintain a clear rear view. In addition, the electronic rearview mirror has an automatic brightness adjustment function, which can maintain a clear rear view at night or in low-light conditions such as tunnels.
▲Not affected by high beam
Third, the field of vision is not affected by the weather. Unlike traditional glass mirrors, external lenses are hidden in the protective cover, the surface area of the lens is very small, so the camera can be made into a relatively small package, and the electronic mirror camera is also attached to self-cleaning and water-based protective coating, which can self-heat during work to remove the state surrounded by rain, fog and snow. At the same time, the ISP algorithm can also realize the defogging function, which can greatly improve the field of view of the rearview mirror.
▲Not affected by weather
Fourth, it has lower wind resistance and wind noise. The overall volume of the external camera shape of the electronic rearview mirror can be reduced to one-third or less than that of the traditional rearview mirror, and the overall design is more in line with the aerodynamic principle, which can effectively improve the cruising range, and also reduce a lot of high-speed wind noise and improve driving comfort.
▲Reduce wind resistance
Although electronic rearview mirrors have many advantages, there may be some difficulties in actual landing.
From the perspective of the parts themselves, the traditional rearview mirror has been a very mature industry after decades of development, and the market industry supporting is very mature. The electronic rearview mirror is a new component, on the one hand, there is no mass production experience, and the production line capacity requires a lot of verification and investment. On the other hand, there are many difficulties in product development.
According to data from Shenwan Hongyuan Research Institute, the current electronic rearview mirror is still in its infancy, and only the research and development of the electronic exterior mirror camera will cost at least 50 million yuan. This also leads to the high cost of electronic rearview mirror system, the current price of electronic rearview mirror option is 0.7-15,000 yuan, while the price of traditional glass rearview mirror is only 300~3000 yuan.
In addition, the industry generally has problems such as complex and expensive development facilities and equipment, long time for professional laboratory construction and personnel training, and complex and unclear regulations.
At the technical level, the technical difficulties of electronic rearview mirror products mainly include two important indicators: delay and image quality. Latency refers to the time consumption from the time the event occurs, to being perceived by the sensor, processed by the ISP, and sent to the display screen. Traditional glass mirrors present images at the speed of light, while electronic mirror systems cannot reach the speed of light and can only get as close as possible.
▲IPS treatment effect
The image image quality is related to pre-processing and post-processing, which is mainly determined by the performance of the lens and CMOS sensor, and the post-processing is mainly determined by the ISP capability. Electronic rearview mirror systems will encounter problems such as diffusion/light leakage, glare, depth of field, halo, distortion, etc., which requires manufacturers to have strong ability to solve the above problems in the pre- and post-processing links.
In addition to the product and technical level, the landing of electronic rearview mirrors is also affected by user habits. Most car drivers are already accustomed to using traditional mirrors, and it may take time to re-adjust to electronic mirrors. Moreover, in the early stage of the launch of electronic rearview mirror products, their options and costs are high, and some users may find it difficult to accept.
Most importantly, traditional mirrors rely on mirror reflections, are purely physical hardware, and there is no possibility of failure except for damage. Electronic rearview mirrors need to consider the risk of failure in the operation of camera systems, ISP/DSP processing systems, display systems, power supplies and communication systems.
02.
Existing enterprise layout software and hardware integration or for the solution
Although the regulations on electronic rearview mirrors have only recently been implemented, some domestic companies have long begun to lay out and have made some efforts to address the above problems.
In the Chinese market, Huayang Group began to lay out the digital rearview mirror product line since 2016, and launched its first generation of streaming rearview mirror in China in the same year, which is the predecessor of electronic rearview mirror. After years of product iteration and technology upgrading, in early 2022, a more mature electronic rearview mirror product was launched.
▲Huayang electronic rearview mirror products
Yuanfeng Technology is another old player of streaming rearview mirrors, in the whole year of 2022 and the first quarter of 2023, Yuanfeng Technology ranked first in the domestic market share of streaming rearview mirrors, and its CMS product line covers three major areas: passenger car exterior electronic rearview mirrors, commercial vehicle exterior electronic rearview mirrors, and streaming media rearview mirrors; In 2022, it will obtain new designated projects of Xpeng and Yutong Bus and cooperate with Dongfeng Fengxing.
Yuanfeng Technology electronic rearview mirror products passed the mandatory inspection of this standard in early July 2022, becoming the first batch of domestic suppliers of Class I electronic rearview mirror products that passed the new national standard GB15084-2022.
Yuxing Electronics has made a rapid layout in the field of commercial vehicles, and signed an electronic rearview mirror prototype development project with domestic mainstream commercial vehicle companies in 2020 to prepare for the mass production of new models in 2~3 years.
Self-technology set up a project to develop electronic rearview mirror products in 2020, launched a complete version of the prototype in the second half of 2022 to adapt to OEM models, install vehicles, road tests, etc., and from the second half of 2022, it has successively received designated projects for domestic OEMs of passenger cars and commercial vehicles. At present, the CMS products of self-technology have been loaded and tested in 5 main engine factories, with a total of 100,000 kilometers of real road tests, covering various road conditions.
In addition, the domestic veteran supplier Desay SV has also made some layouts in electronic rearview mirrors. In 2021, Desay SV participated in the drafting and revision of the national standard for electronic rearview mirrors, and started the project development of electronic rearview mirrors in mid-2022 according to market conditions.
After half a year's efforts, its first generation of products has successfully landed and has relatively complete functions. After that, Desay SV continued to make efforts on this track, and its second-generation products with intelligent driving assistance functions officially landed in April this year and were displayed at the Shanghai Auto Show. At present, Desay SV has completed the planning of the third and fourth generation products, and the related plans are already in research and practice. At present, it has cooperated with a number of OEMs (original equipment manufacturers) for electronic rearview mirror products.
▲Desay SV electronic rearview mirror
Through the layout of these players above, it can also be seen that although the electronic rearview mirror is one of the auto parts products that have only recently begun to land, the layout of domestic players in this regard is very early, and it is the large investment made by these players that can make the large-scale mass production of electronic rearview mirrors possible after regulatory support.
In the process of moving towards large-scale mass production of electronic rearview mirrors, many domestic players have proposed solutions to some of the problems existing in electronic rearview mirrors, and have plans for future products.
Desay SV is one of the prominent representatives, in terms of hardware, it provides two electronic rearview mirror scheme choices, one is the integrated display solution, this scheme based on the chip itself solidified function to achieve electronic rearview mirror function, simple, low price, low delay, followed by independent ECU scheme, this scheme system itself has a certain computing power, can achieve a number of functions, such as blind spot monitoring, lane change assistance, etc., but the price is slightly higher. The two solutions meet different needs, which reduces the cost of electronic rearview mirrors.
In terms of software debugging, Desay SV has its own ISP team and laboratory, which can optimize the electronic rearview mirror to achieve the best display effect while adapting to the various conditions and needs of the vehicle. At the same time, thanks to the self-built ISP team and laboratory, Desay SV has shortened the traditional field of view check and ISP adjustment work from weeks to several hours, which can realize the rapid verification of electronic rearview mirror systems.
▲ISP debugging schematic
In terms of safety and performance, the electronic rearview mirror solution provided by Desay SV has reached or even exceeded national standards in terms of frame rate, safety and other indicators.
On the whole, at present, there are many players in the entire industry to overcome some of the drawbacks of electronic rearview mirrors, such as Huayang Group, Yuanfeng Technology, Yuxing Electronics, Self-Technology and Desai SV introduced above, have come up with very perfect products, have been ready for mass production.
With the efforts of many domestic manufacturers in various industries and aspects, the landing of electronic rearview mirrors is not impossible, and with the increasing attention of car companies to electronic rearview mirrors, electronic rearview mirrors are expected to achieve large-scale landing in the future.
03.
It will be integrated into autonomous driving to reduce the cost of the whole vehicle
Major manufacturers at home and abroad have spent so much effort to finally move the electronic rearview mirror to the car, is it just to let people see more clearly, reduce wind resistance, and improve the aesthetics of the vehicle?
Obviously, the advent of electronic rearview mirrors is not just for this purpose. As the car gradually moves towards intelligence and automation, the automatic driving function of the car develops to a higher level, and the intelligent cockpit is also developing and iterating, the future electronic rearview mirror system may be integrated into the electronic and electrical architecture of the whole vehicle, becoming a part of the automatic driving system and intelligent cockpit, promoting the expansion of intelligent cockpit functions and the development of automatic driving.
▲Integration into autonomous driving
At present, most automatic driving systems use a large number of high-cost sensors such as lidar and millimeter-wave radar, and the emergence and development of electronic rearview mirrors in the future may replace the side rear radar / or multiplex with the rear camera of the automatic driving side, thereby reducing the number of radar used in the vehicle and achieving the purpose of reducing the production cost of the whole vehicle.
In addition, in the future, the system controller of electronic rearview mirror may be integrated into the cockpit domain controller/intelligent driving domain controller, reducing the number of controllers used and the use of vehicle lines, thereby further reducing the cost of the whole vehicle.
Sinosun's electronic rearview mirrors can realize a wealth of ADAS functions such as blind spot monitoring (BSD), reversing visual width, door opening warning (DOW), lane change assist (LCA), vehicle distance display, defogging function and dirt recognition through interaction with radar and camera and integration of specific software algorithms.
Desay SV is also promoting the linkage between electronic rearview mirrors and autonomous driving systems. At present, Desay SV plans to integrate functions such as rear warning and lane change prompt into electronic rearview mirrors, and will also develop more intelligent applications for more use scenarios to promote the further upgrade of automotive intelligence.
04.
Conclusion: The tide of electronic rearview mirrors is coming
After decades of development, the automotive rearview mirror industry finally ushered in a new development in the era of automotive intelligence, and electronic rearview mirrors began to appear and gradually get on the car. With the blessing of the advantages of field of view, wind resistance, function and intelligent potential, electronic rearview mirrors will gradually replace traditional glass rearview mirrors in the future.
In the face of many problems in the development of electronic rearview mirrors, many manufacturers have made efforts to continuously promote their strengths and avoid their weaknesses. Such as the efforts of self-technology in FPGA, Yuxing Electronics' efforts in imaging quality, Desay SV's software and hardware integration solutions, and the landing of electronic rearview mirrors can be said to be "everything is ready, only owes the east wind".
With the implementation of the policy and the expansion of car companies' demand for vehicle appearance and intelligence, electronic rearview mirrors are finally looking forward to the "east wind", and more vehicles will be equipped with electronic rearview mirrors in the future, user habits will be gradually changed, and automobile design will also undergo tremendous changes.