Been thinking of how to meet the intent of various state requirements for
outside rear view mirrors.
The person credited with inventing the rear view mirror is a man named
Ray Harroun, an engineer with Marmon, then a car maker. Harroun inserted
a mirror in his car, a Marmon Wasp... Ray's invention took place in the spring
of 1911. Who Invented the Rear View Mirror?
That car is an ecomodder's dream: boat tail, disc wheels...
In every state mirrors are required to provide a view to 200 ft. behind the
vehicle. On the surface, that's fine, but it's nearly meaningless. About all it
seems to mean is the mirror has to be shiny. Whether or not an object can
be seen at 200 ft. is more a function of alignment. Nothing is said about the
area or angular sweep that must be viewable.
(The fly in the ointment. Of all the states, only Vermont specifies the area for
the required mirror; not less than 5" diameter or less than 25 sq. in. Surely
the legislators in VT know that a 5" diameter circle has an area of 19.6 sq. in.
Mirror Laws by State (U.S.) - EcoModder
Regulations that require a certain specific thing are old school. In the case of
rear view mirrors, when the regulation was first implemented, a reflecting
mirror was the only way to get the desired rear-ward view. A more modern
and enlightened method of regulation is to specify the desired outcome, and
let the industry/market/research provide ways to achieve it. This sort of
regulation is performance based and allows for innovation.
Like it or not, all state rear view regs are firmly mired in the past.
So, in thinking about a mirror delete, why not meet the regs half-way. Why
not a mirror, a very small one, say 1 in. diameter, and have the mirror
reflect into a web cam which shows the view on a smallish flat screen inside
the car.
It seems like the combined mirror/camera could be be incorporated in an
aerodynamic package/pod ~1-1/2 in in diameter and perhaps 4 in. long. Of
necessity, the mirror would have to be visible to a patrol officer on close
inspection.
Somewhere to start, although I think a larger display screen is in order:
Ant Racing Rear View Camera System - Tobefast
I wish that were technically competent enough to put something like this
together and see how it would be received by the local boys-in-blue.