BMW wants cameras to replace mirrors in production cars

BMW has joined Tesla in pushing to replace side mirrors with cameras for production vehicles.

The German automaker showed off the i8 Mirrorless concept earlier this month at the Consumer Electronics Show. Two side-mounted pods and a third camera above the rear window provide a wide view of the surroundings, presented on an 11.8-inch digital display in place of the rear-view mirror.

Tesla Motors was among the first companies to recently increase pressure on the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration to amend its archaic regulations and allow cameras to supplant traditional mirrors. Concepts boasting such systems have been around since at least the 1990s, providing several decades for the technology to be made production-ready.

BMW development head Elmar Frickenstein suggests the company is approximately three years away from implementing mirrorless systems in production vehicles. The i8 would make a likely launch candidate, potentially followed by an updated 7-Series.

“First, should there be a development like a mirror camera, it will trickle from top to bottom in the upcoming model family,” he said, according to a Focus.de report translated by BMWblog.

Three cameras can theoretically provide a much more natural view to the sides and behind the vehicle, free of blind spots and requiring no adjustments to suit different drivers. Cameras can be paired with machine-vision algorithms to help highlight potential danger, such as approaching vehicles.

The Mirrorless concept featured camera lenses protected by Gorilla Glass with a dirt-repellent coating. It may not be difficult to argue the virtues of digital cameras when the lenses are unobstructed, but automakers may need to prove that mirrorless systems can reasonably compete with traditional mirrors when the lens surfaces become covered by snow, water, dust, salt residue or other grime.

The NHTSA recently promised to begin granting exemptions for autonomous driving technology, potentially eliminating red tape that sometimes takes years to overcome via traditional rule-making. It remains unclear if associated technologies, including mirrorless systems, will also be considered.

Some automakers may opt to launch their first mirrorless vehicles in markets with less restrictive regulations, rather than waiting for the NHTSA to complete its research and move forward with a notoriously slow rule-making process.