CMS：遇见未来，走进电子后视镜里的世界

01 The 100-year history of rearview mirrors

Rearview mirrors have existed in cars for nearly a hundred years and are one of the oldest car parts. However, when cars were first invented, there was no such thing as a rearview mirror, and even the awareness of safe driving had not been established, let alone traffic rules. So at that time, when people wanted to turn when driving, they had to turn their heads to observe the situation behind the car.

It was not until the beginning of the 19th century that a legendary female racing driver appeared in Britain-Dorothy Levitt. Britain's first female racing driver set a record for the highest continuous mileage by a female driver in 1905 when she was 23 years old. Later, in 1906, she broke the women's highest speed record and was hailed as "the fastest woman in the world."

Due to long-term contact with cars, Dorothy Levy, with her unique female sensitivity and delicacy, observed the embarrassment and danger of not being able to understand the situation behind the car at any time while driving. Therefore, in his manual "Women and Cars" published in 1906, he mentioned the idea of using a mirror to observe the situation behind the car when there were many vehicles.

At present, traditional rearview mirrors have gone through a century of history, although the significance of rearview mirrors has been widely recognized by the public.

However, it also has four main disadvantages:The blind area of vision is large, which increases wind resistance, glare from the high beams of the vehicles behind, and disturbances caused by rain and snow.. These problems seriously affect the driver's judgment and control of the rear road conditions and vehicle driving status. Therefore, major automobile manufacturers have already planned to "eliminate rearview mirrors" and replace the rearview mirrors with imaging systems. However, due to legal regulations, they always stop at concept cars.

With the rapid development of vehicle-mounted intelligent terminal technology and the Internet, the automotive field has set off a revolution regarding the future direction of automobile rearview mirrors, which is the era of electronic rearview mirrors. Until 2016, when the EU ECE R46 was implemented, Japan and Europe successively began to explore the possibility of electronic rearview mirrors (CMS).

02 Electronic rearview mirror technology gradually matures

Since Daimler-Benz launched its electronic exterior rearview mirror project in 2008, there have been many car companies at home and abroad that have deployed electronic exterior rearview mirrors from concept cars to mass-produced models.

In the commercial vehicle market, the advantages of saving fuel and maintenance costs, ensuring night driving safety and reducing blind spots give CMS a broad commercial vehicle market. In 2018, Mercedes-Benz equipped its flagship model Actros with CMS. In 2020, Mann Trucks introduced the "zero blind spot" OptiView electronic exterior mirror system to replace the traditional rearview mirror. At present, there are a small number of domestic commercial vehicles equipped with electronic exterior rearview mirrors on the basis of traditional rearview mirrors, such as BYD K9 pure electric vehicles, Chenglong H9 tractors, and Shaanxi Automobile X6000 tractors.

In addition, in the passenger car market, CMS electronic exterior mirror cameras have also realized the transition from commercial vehicles to passenger cars. At present, overseas Europe and Japan have allowed CMS to replace traditional exterior rearview mirrors. Lexus ES, Audi e-tron and Honda E are currently in mass production. Domestic passenger cars equipped with CMS have already achieved mass production in 2022. BAIC Rubik's CubeBecame China's first mass-produced model equipped with electronic exterior rearview mirrors, In addition, Nezha S is equipped with electronic exterior rearview mirrors and was unveiled at the Shanghai Auto Show.