But we’re not talking about a dash-mounted large screen. Or at least many of us are not.
We, or at least I/me, are talking about a ~2×6" screen that is a direct 1-for-1 replacement for the typical rear view mirror on a short stalk at the top center of the windshield. Same size, same shape, same location, same function. Just a different tech to display the same info.
This is what I thought we were talking about.
I’m even more surprised to hear that the issue is with the dashboard mounted video screens. Those seem even easier to ignore.
In my car the mirror doubles as a screen. You can toggle it back and forth between being a mirror or being the rear-view screen. It’s nice when you have people’s heads or cargo stacked up to block the rear window, but otherwise I don’t use it for reasons mentioned earlier.
I installed a similar unit on a previous F150. Worked fine for a few years until I sold the vehicle.
I find that heads tend to roll around no matter how carefully I stack them.
Your problem is that you’re trying to stack them. I just mounted a bunch of these in the back and it solved the whole heads rolling around problem.
I realised the other thing I dislike about screens in general. There is no stereopsis - thus you lose depth cues. Similarly, there are no focus depth cues.
The augmented stuff that can be overlaid onto the images - such as predicted path based on steering angle are pretty useful, so it isn’t a total loss. But I can have that on ordinary screens in the dashboard when I need it.
Maybe the most useful attribute is dynamic range compression. So at night there are no dazzles and they can actually show stuff your eyes can’t see.
This is something I consider not useful, at least in mine, at night. When headlights are too muted my brain doesn’t quickly scan them as headlights. And it doesn’t bring up the darker objects. It’s more like clipping than dynamic range compression (not sure if there is such a thing as clipping in image processing but I’m thinking of how it works in audio).
At viewing distances that are large compared to the distance between the viewer’s eyes, stereoscopic vision ceased to become useful for gauging depth, and instead we rely more on our familiarity with the size/scale of objects. This is reportedly one reason why people sometimes turn in front of oncoming motorcyclists, i.e. they see something that’s smaller than a car and automatically think it’s far away since that’s how small a distant car would appear in their field of view. This source claims the distance limit for the utility of stereoscopic vision is about 18 feet. If true, it means that when you look in your rear view mirror, and back 8 feet to your rear bumper, your stereoscopic vision ability won’t be terribly useful for assessing the range of any car that’s more than 10 feet behind you (which is probably almost all of them).
One of the coolest uses for dynamic range compression I’ve seen is for welding. An ordinary welding helmet with a suitable lens lets you see what you’re welding, but everything else in your field of view ends up being invisibly dark. People are now fiddling with HDR camera systems that let you see everything clearly, even when there’s a dazzlingly bright plasma arc right in the center of your field of view.
That sounds about right.
I was thinking in terms of using the image in the mirrors to judge things like reversing or clearing objects when precision is needed.
I just helped my dad install a rear view camera on his old Chevy S10. The kit had instructions for two methods.
One method is the wired-in install that ties into the shifter. This is so the back up light on the camera comes on when you trigger in reverse. Also how the camera is tied to reverse gear.
Method two is much simpler. There’s one line for the camera to the screen, and a second line for power runs to a cigarette lighter plug. That line has a switch to activate and deactivate the camera.
We went with the simple method. The trickiest part for us was running the camera line from inside the cab to outside the cab. Professional install would find the pass through from the interior to the engine compartment, but we didn’t want to dig around that hard in the dashboard. So we went for the dirty “drill a hole in the floorboard” method. Had to find a spot with access to the floor that didn’t have some obstruction. The complication is some sort of tank under the seat and feet.
To answer the question asked, yes you can leave the screen on with this method. However, there is a bright rear light in the camera that you shouldn’t drive with.
I did it. It was pretty straightforward affair. Just followed the directions.
It instructed me to wire it to the reverse (back-up) lights. I was tempted to wire it to the tail light’s instead so I could have it on all the time.
Works great. One caveat, at the time I bought mine there was general signal model and a narrower band model (which was more expensive). I wish I had gotten the more expensive one now, in crowded parking lots mine sometimes has glitches.
would it (technically) be possible you’d see some other cars rear-cam-feed?
I rented a car that had the backup screen integrated into an actual rearview mirror but only taking up about one-third of the mirror when actually backing up. It was rather disorienting, just like the article says.
The problem is this. When you look in the rearview mirror, you focus and adjust your eye convergence to the actual distance from the mirror to the view in it. With the camera, you have to change focus and convergence to the camera image ON the mirror, which is closer (the article implies the problem of convergence but doesn’t use the word).
If the entire rearview “mirror” is always the camera view, you’d probably get used to it fairly quickly.
Your brain uses convergence and focus to get a general idea of distance to the object. A 3-d movie has convergence, but the focus never changes, which is one reason a 3-d movie isn’t completely like being in a physical scene.
As I understand it the main problem is the [saccade effect] (Saccade - EyeWiki
Hijacking to point out how utterly stupid it is for car manufacturers to sell a several-thousand pound moving device that requires the operator’s attention at all times with an “entertainment” screen. I’ve recently even seen an ad for car insurance (!) showing a guy driving and happily playing a video game on the console at the same time. As much as distracted driving is a major cause of road accidents, it’s unconscionable for the car companies to tempt people (especially new drivers) to buy their car because it will be fun to play games while driving. One company calls it the “infotainment” screen. No deception there, simply irresponsible profiteering. Ok, folks, back to your regularly scheduled conversation.
My backup camera is not the same kind of view as the rear view mirror, it’s a kind of fisheye lens that can see all the way to both sides of the car (great for parking), and the straight back view is not (what’s the word? Isomorphic?) I assumed all backup camera lenses were like this. That’s why I’m pretty sure I would find it difficult to use, in the context of driving forward at speed, to get a good view of what is behind me in the way that a mirror does.
Regarding the van, I thought most such trucks had large side mirrors with small curved mirrors on them for seeing “around corners” to help with the lack of a direct rear view.
Yes, It happens to me occasionally. I’ve also gotten TVs, and sometimes I’ll pick up a dashcam.
Hell, it’s bad enough that they moved away from physical buttons to touchscreens for the radio. Physical buttons can be manipulated by touch blindly, but touchscreens you have to look at to see what you are selecting.
Entertainment options on the console display is preposterous.
My son had asked what would happen if you were going down the freeway and put the gear shifter into reverse. I explained that nothing bad would happen as modern cars have safety features to prevent that.
I then demonstrated it to him (the car just goes into neutral by the way) but I was surprised when the back up camera came up on the screen. Interesting view since you never normally see it moving forward going 55.