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Reflecting on mirrors from a digital age

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<b>END OF AN ERA:</b> Volkswagen’s XL1 isn’t equipped with conventional side-mirrors and instead uses camera-based technologies. As technology continues to advance, will we the end of rear-view and side-mirrors? <i>Image: Volkswagen</i>
<b>END OF AN ERA:</b> Volkswagen’s XL1 isn’t equipped with conventional side-mirrors and instead uses camera-based technologies. As technology continues to advance, will we the end of rear-view and side-mirrors? <i>Image: Volkswagen</i>
Volkswagen

BERLIN, Germany - Most drivers take a car’s rear-view mirror for granted but few will know that this simple idea owes its origin to the resourceful Dorothy Levitt, once billed as the Fastest Women on Earth.

Around 100 years ago British-born Dorothy noted in her pioneering book ‘The Woman and the Car: A Chatty Little Handbook for the Edwardian Motoriste’ that women should carry a little hand-mirror in a convenient place when driving.

This was so they may "hold the mirror aloft from time to time in order to see behind while driving in traffic", she wrote.

ADVANCEMENT IN ROAD SAFETY

The book was a rarity in the male-dominated world of automobiles. Dorothy's idea did not catch on immediately; not until a few years later were most drivers able to look into a fixed mirror to see what was behind them.

It proved to be a major advance in road safety.

Mirrors, fixed to the roof or facia or outside on the door, have continued little changed into the digital age but camera-based rear-view technologies are becoming commonplace.

From 1914 the rear-view mirror gradually became a standard. Shortly before that, racing driver Ray Harroun mounted a mirror on his Marmon Wasp car for the first edition of the Indianapolis 500. His idea was to reduce weight by removing the need to carry a mechanic who also acted as a scout by telling the driver the positions of rivals.

US inventor Elmer Berger is often cited as having come up with the rear-view mirror; it was he who patented it.

The iconic Ford Model T, produced until 1927, came with a rear-view mirror and from 1930 to 1950 other automaker's followed suit with mirrors mounted inside or outside vehicles.

CAMERAS, SENSORS, MONITORS

Modern rear-view mirrors are full of technical wizardry. Many contain video cameras and the mirror surfaces can be heated to prevent misting. There are also external mirrors with buzzers to warn of objects outside the driver's field of vision.

Nissan came up with a "smart rear-view mirror" which uses a screen instead of mirrored glass.

While some testers have quipped that this is a solution in search of a problem to solve, Nissan states: "The high-quality camera and image-processing system in the LCD monitor consistently results in a clear image with minimal glare, even during sunrise and sunset or when the vehicle is being followed by a vehicle with strong headlights."

END OF THE SIDE-MIRROR

A century on, technology has produced some credible digital replacements.

Volkswagen's XL1 has no outside mirrors, it uses cameras. Battery-car maker Tesla unveiled a concept in 2012 that was devoid of bodywork mirrors, just as Porsche omits them from its Panamera Sport Turismo and 918 Spyder.

Porsche spokesman Hermann-Josef Stappen said: "This poses no technical problem at all but car-standards legislation is lagging behind technological reality."

German traffic laws permit rear-view mirrors to be replaced by “monitoring devices which enable indirect sight" yet automakers are waiting to see whether revised standards internationally will allow them to fit rear-view cameras as standard equipment.

VW spokesman Michael Franke, with a nod to the lengthy negotiations needed before its so-called E-mirror fitted to the XL1 can be sold in global markets, commented: "It’s been a long, drawn-out procedure lasting several years.”

ECE regulations, which apply to much of the world outside the US, specify that a car must be fitted with two external rear-view mirrors. Camera systems are only sanctioned for a range of trucks.       

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