4 ms·

> A mirror is harder to take out with a single splash of mud. Never mind mud, what about the ice? I drove trucks for a while and the entire front of my truck w

> A mirror is harder to take out with a single splash of mud. Never mind mud, what about the ice? I drove trucks for a while and the entire front of my truck was routinely coated with snow, slush, and ice. If it was heavy enough I'd have to pull over and tap at it with a 'tire thumper' to knock huge chunks off periodically. Keeping the windshield clear was a constant battle. I wonder what kind of camera or sensor could be used that wouldn't ice up. Traditional mirrors have heating and most are enclosed in a front-facing housing. They get really hard to see out of too, because the salt and sand spray kicked up by the vehicle in front of you sticks to the heated glass of the mirror and collects there. Visibility in winter driving is a difficult problem but perhaps that can be improved.

saulrh 9y ago
I'd expect cameras to be easier to keep clear in extreme circumstances, actually. The key is the "clear view screen" [1], a circular window on bearings that spins rapidly to throw off obstructions. You can also heat them to deal with icing. I don't think that I've ever seen a mirror outfitted with one, but cameras are small enough to make them trivially fittable, and the units themselves I'd expect to be surprisingly cheap - armored ten-inch units for CNC enclosures are ~USD1300 even at low volume [2]. I could easily see a configuration that has four or five important cameras covered by spinners and placed so ice can't bridge the panel. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clear_view_screen https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clear_view_screen [2] http://visiport.com/pdf/VPO-DEU_Unit-Pricing_PL1601.pdf http://visiport.com/pdf/VPO-DEU_Unit-Pricing_PL1601.pdf