Despite all the changes going on in automobiles lately, one
thing that's remained pretty consistent in every car I've driven has
been the rearview mirror. We can check that one off now though, now that
I've taken a test drive in a Nissan Rogue equipped with the new Smart rearview mirror.
Due to roll out on the company's cars in North America next year, it's a
simple augmentation that combines a traditional mirror with a video
screen. Flipping the dimmer switch usually meant for night driving drops
you into video camera mode, with a feed streamed directly from a 1.3MP
camera mounted in the trunk that drops out the usual blockages from the
car's interior for a clear view of what's behind you. Back up cameras
are already common -- and highly necessary if you have my (lack of)
parallel parking skills -- but is it time to change out something that's
worked pretty well for the last century or so?
No comments:
Post a Comment