Elon hints at possibility that new Roadster really won’t have side mirrors

[ecarfan]

Maybe in markets that require side mirrors, they will be easily removable? Hard to tell. See Elon Musk talks next-gen Tesla Roadster, hints at potentially having no mirrors, and more

 

[Joerg]

In Germany the new soon to be released Audi eTron will have cameras instead of mirrors - certainly for good money in the options list, but still. The images will be visualized with small HD screens in the door panels left and right.
So it doesn’t seem impossible to replace ‚mirrors‘. But I wouldn’t feel safe to simply have nothing instead.

 

[Kgorilla37]

Cameras plus radar should work well, better than mirrors alone. So it might be just how the system is set up. Where do the images from the cameras show up and how easy will it be to see the images? And how does the radar/lidar, etc work to tell the driver what around the car? And how are they integrated?

 

[NoBeard]

If you mounted a small screen to the base of the A Pillar it would feel natural and be pretty easy. Surprised it's taken this long.

 

[ecarfan]

If you mounted a small screen to the base of the A Pillar it would feel natural and be pretty easy. Surprised it's taken this long.

I’m not surprised. It’s been technically feasible for many years but the US DOT won’t allow cars to be sold in the US unless they have side mirrors. This is still true and there is no evidence I am aware of that DOT regulations are going to change any time soon.

If you watch the video I linked to, Elon says that while US regulations require cars to be built and sold with side mirrors, the law may not require car owners to keep them on the car after they purchase it. I assume he is referring to state laws, which of course can be quite different between states.

California law requires a rear view mirror and a left side mirror. A right side mirror is not required. See Law section.

I suspect most states require one or more side mirrors, and therefore car manufacturers must sell cars with side mirrors. However, for a car like the coming Tesla Roadster, Elon may decide to make the mirrors easily removable so that for track use owners can take them off. Then the side cameras could be enabled to show on the center display.

 

[HHHH]

I rented a new Escalade today that has an interesting rearview mirror camera / traditional rearview mirror camera switch typically used to switching from dimming cool concept