It is raining in Beijing.

Replacing the traditional optical rearview mirror with electronic rearview mirror has always been a controversial technology. Technological progress and security are always in a game with each other. Lexus is now the first car to eat crabs. In view of Japanese regulations, ES cars equipped with left and right electronic rearview mirrors should take the lead in mass production.

I mentioned it in the previous article, but in recent years, everything involving "optical components" has a tendency to be electronic. For example, the familiar "SLR camera" is gradually being replaced by the "single camera" (that is, the "micro-single camera" we often say). The "optical microscope" widely used in early medical and scientific research circles was gradually replaced by the "electron microscope".

In particular, it can be seen that "electronization" will become a development bridge for all walks of life at least in the next decade. Although the meaning it carries is not as great as "unusable", it can at least shorten the distance between "unusable" and "usable".

If we look at cars, we will find that the revolution from "optical components" to "electronic components" has already begun. For example, the "flow rearview mirror" used by many SUV models is an example.

You know, there are only three "optical mirrors" that affect safety in a car: the central rearview mirror inside the car and the rearview mirrors on both sides outside the car (commonly known as mirrors). Although strictly speaking, the "cosmetic mirror" in the car also belongs to the optical reflector. But that doesn't affect safety, so it doesn't count.

As the "central rearview mirror" has gradually become a "flow rearview mirror", the external rearview mirror has certainly been involved in this wave of "electronization". But unlike the "flow rearview mirror", the electronic rearview mirror is embarrassed to be stopped outside the traffic laws of most countries.

Why does the traffic law strictly prohibit the use of electronic rearview mirrors?

First of all, we should clarify a concept: it is not that the traffic law does not allow vehicles to use electronic rearview mirrors, but that optical exterior rearview mirrors must be installed before leaving the factory. What do you mean? Look at the picture and we will understand.

Take China as an example, China's "GB 15084-20 13? The Performance and Installation Requirements of Indirect Vision Devices for Motor Vehicles clearly stipulates that vehicles must be equipped with exterior rearview mirrors. The exterior rearview mirror mentioned here is a traditional "optical rearview mirror", and a stick and a camera are definitely not enough.

Think back, when you were learning to drive in a driving school, did the coach often say in your ear, "The rearview mirror is the driver's eyes, so you should observe more and pay more attention." Although we didn't think so at the time, as long as you drive on the road for a few months, you will find that the coach is absolutely right. It is precisely because of this that the traffic regulations of various countries have such high requirements for this configuration.

However, not all countries in the world require vehicles to be equipped with optical rearview mirrors before they can go on the road. There are two exceptions: India and Japan.

Let's start with India. The reason why this country allows cars not to be equipped with rearview mirrors is funny. Because India has a very large population, many means of transportation (mainly jumping) and narrow roads. If the rearview mirror is forcibly installed, it is easy to be scratched and broken, which is even worse when it meets pedestrians. Simply allow the vehicle not to install the exterior rearview mirror.

This reminds me of an old joke: children always kick the quilt when they sleep. Fortunately, I broke his leg, otherwise he would catch a cold.

Get to the point, and continue to talk about Japan. In fact, Japan's original traffic law also required vehicles to be equipped with exterior rearview mirrors before going on the road, but in recent years, Japan has revised the traffic law, clearly stipulating that "vehicles can only go on the road if they are equipped with electronic rearview mirrors". As for the reasons, Ichiro Qi Teng, Director of Engineering Policy of Japan Road Transport Bureau, said in an interview:

"The Japanese government has revised the relevant regulations, mainly because cameras have higher image quality than traditional mirrors."

It can be seen that in Japan, a country with extremely developed electronic industry, the acceptance of electronic components is much higher than that of other countries. A famous Japanese supplier, Shimei Industry (Ichikoh? Industries also predicts that around 2023, about 29% of the models in the Japanese market will replace their "exterior rearview mirrors" with "electronic rearview mirrors".

There are many reasons why this provision has not been introduced into the traffic laws of various countries, but the most important ones are two:

1. How to ensure the clarity of the picture is high enough?

Traditional optical rearview mirrors can achieve "what you see is what you get", while electronic rearview mirrors can't. After all, this is a "harmful" image quality. The camera's definition, field of view, reliability and even the color temperature of the picture should be tested one by one before considering the application. For this configuration that "affects driving safety very much", it is indeed right to be cautious.

2. How to ensure that drivers can adapt?

As we all know, the human eye is like a top-class lens, and the focusing performance of the lens can't be compared with that of people, but the influence of different pictures from far and near on the human eye always exists, and the focusing process takes some time after all. When the line of sight is switched between the road ahead and the screen in the car, the eyes need to adapt, and there is a problem of refocusing. Whether there are certain security risks during this period remains to be tested. In addition, frequent switching back and forth is also easy to cause visual fatigue. In contrast, the traditional optical rearview mirror does not have this problem.

This is also a question of whether we can get used to such a driving style. To be honest, I can't adapt to the perspective of "streaming media rearview mirror" until now. Even in a car with a small back window, I'd rather turn off the monitor. How to ensure that every driver is used to this electronic rearview mirror that can't be turned off manually? Although the adaptability depends entirely on the individual, but still that sentence, it will affect driving safety, so naturally we can't act rashly.

With the endorsement of the word "safety", I believe that countries' caution about traffic laws can also be understood by everyone. We are in the "new and old alternate" stage, so we might as well look at this question from another angle: Is the electronic rearview mirror necessarily better than the optical rearview mirror? If so, where is it?

Electronic rearview mirror is not a revolution, but it must be sublimation.

Come to think of it, it is natural for the senior engineers of the supplier to research and develop this new technology day and night. "Electronic rearview mirror is better than optical rearview mirror" seems to be more like a correct nonsense.

Let's see, where is the electronic rearview mirror?

First of all, a bigger vision.

How important is the view of the rearview mirror? Imagine how cautious you are when driving a new car. Due to the physical characteristics of the optical rearview mirror, the field of view is so small unless the lens is curved. It's enough, but it doesn't work. But if it is curved, the edge distortion on both sides of the rearview mirror will make people dizzy and always feel that the road is curved.

Therefore, the best solution is the super wide-angle camera. Not only is the field of vision wide enough, but the system can also correct the edge distortion of the camera in real time through the algorithm, killing two birds with one stone.

Take a practical example: you are driving on a one-way four-lane expressway, and your position is in the leftmost lane. But you will get off at the front of the expressway, and you will merge at this time. If it is an electronic rearview mirror, you can observe the traffic situation of the whole three lanes on the right side of the car on the display screen in the car and make an early response to the parallel line. Optical rearview mirror is not good. In order to ensure safety, only one lane can be merged.

Although I don't advocate crossing several lanes directly, it's better to see in advance than to see nothing at all.

Second, I am no longer afraid of "high beam dogs"

Drivers in fun run often must have a deep feeling about this. Especially when there are few street lamps and the surroundings are dark, the high beam of the rear car is as dazzling as the two suns in the rearview mirror. This really responds to Keigo Higashino's famous saying: There are two things that human beings can't look directly at, one is the sun and the other is the human heart.

When facing the high beam of the rear car, the advantages of electronic rearview mirror are obvious. Theoretically, as long as the ISP of the camera is strong enough, you can preview the picture effect after HDR in real time, that is, "light is not exposed, dark is not exposed".

HDR is not a new technology at all, it is very common in mobile phones. If you have an iphone in your hand? For mobile phones above X level, you can turn on the camera and aim at the sun, and then look at the picture effect on the screen. Is the building next to it very clear, and the sun just has an outline? Not surprisingly, this is similar to the effect of "you watch others sway you with high beams in the rearview mirror" after the popularization of electronic rearview mirrors in the future.

Third, it is no longer disturbed by weather and temperature.

I remember that it snowed heavily in Beijing a few days ago, and I was just going out that day. As a result, I turned on the warm air and rearview mirror for more than 20 minutes, and the frost on the glass could not be removed. The appearance of electronic rearview mirror can avoid the influence of rain, snow and fog to the greatest extent.

Fogging is more troublesome than rain and snow. Especially when the warm air is turned on in the car in winter, the windows on both sides will fog at first, just covering the rearview mirror. Because of the principle of "shooting outside the car and displaying inside the car", the electronic rearview mirror will not be affected by any weather and temperature.

Fourth, reduce wind resistance.

In fact, for family cars, canceling the reduced wind resistance of rearview mirrors can bring little effect. If some manufacturers say that this can reduce fuel consumption and improve acceleration, it must be an exaggeration. But if you include super sports cars, the situation is different.

You can look at the rearview mirror design of Ferrari Rafa below. This shape similar to "a leaf" is obviously to reduce wind resistance and take care of the driver's vision. If electronic rearview mirrors can be used in supercars, there is no need to do so many "fancy" designs. Just keep a stick and reduce wind resistance.

Fifth, improve the passability of vehicles

Generally speaking, the widest part of a vehicle is the distance from the left rearview mirror to the right rearview mirror. If we move the car in a crowded community, we will take back the rearview mirror if necessary to ensure that it will not scratch. Because the electronic rearview mirror has no optical lens, there is only one camera. Therefore, theoretically, the length can be shortened to ensure the passability of vehicles in crowded situations.

These are the obvious advantages of electronic rearview mirrors. I can assure you that it is only a matter of time before electronic rearview mirrors replace optical rearview mirrors. I admit, it's not perfect, such as the clarity, reliability and focus mentioned above, and the supplier can't guarantee that it can be handled well.

However, according to the attitude that many models are already "eager to try", suppliers may be forced to deal with these problems. After all, this is a new market. Master the right to speak in advance, so you don't have to look at others' faces in the future.

Which manufacturers are "eager to try" now?

As we mentioned just now, the laws of most countries prohibit vehicles using electronic rearview mirrors from going on the road, so electronic rearview mirrors have not really been mass-produced. Ferrari, BMW, Audi and other car companies have shown models of electronic rearview mirrors at previous auto shows, including some new cars already on the market, such as Audi e-tron.

Among all the manufacturers, Lexus is the first to act.

There is an inherent advantage in this, because Japan has allowed vehicles using electronic rearview mirrors to go on the road, so Lexus' move is logical. Lexus official said that the new generation ES will soon be able to choose the configuration of electronic rearview mirrors (Japan only). It is expected that the first batch of production models will be listed in May this year.

The cleverness of Lexus is that it takes out two 5-inch LCD screens and places them near the A-pillar of the vehicle. Although it looks a bit like the navigation of "old Japanese taxi". Moreover, these two screens are just in the position of the traditional rearview mirror, and there is no "saving trouble" near the central control screen. Of course, there are different views on this treatment, some think that it lacks a little design, and some think that it can be seamlessly connected with previous usage habits. When it comes to design, Audi combines the screen with the lines in the door, which increases the overall feeling.

Did you remember anything when you mentioned that the central control panel displayed the contents of the rearview mirror?

Yes, in fact, Honda and other brands have made similar attempts before. Its parallel assistance can be displayed on the central control panel in the form of video to ensure the safety of parallel operation. However, this configuration is only used in the right rearview mirror, and it will only be turned on when the turn signal is turned on, which is not practical. But objectively speaking, this is indeed the latest "electronic rearview mirror" system that we can access at present.

Honda naturally did not let us down. In recent years, the company has been showing models using electronic rearview mirrors at auto shows. And most of the models are K cars that are only available in Japan.

It can be seen that the "flexibility" of Japanese traffic law makes local brands take the lead. In contrast, although we missed the latest scientific and technological achievements, we also avoided the problem of "pinching our hands" when eating crabs for the first time. And how much experience this technology will bring to users, I am afraid that Japanese consumers need to help us "check" in advance.

Write it at the end

The rapid development of science and technology sometimes inadvertently stands on the opposite side of the law. So much so that I want to integrate science and technology into my life, and even have to amend the corresponding laws and regulations. The electronization of rearview mirrors mentioned today is only a small part of the future transformation of automobiles.

Imagine if the car can drive completely automatically, if the car can be your friend, and if the car can fly, how many provisions in the traffic laws that we once looked "unshakable" need to be revised?

I don't know, but I hope the above scenario will happen in our near future.

Image source network, invasion and deletion.

This article comes from car home, the author of the car manufacturer, and does not represent car home's position.