Tomorrow’s car rearview mirrors will feature fog sensing/signalling modules, gas sensing, occupant sensing, sign detection, and pedestrian detection. While more and more features are being packed into rearview mirrors, embedded camera technology is developing quickly. Matthew Beecham reviews some trends in the rearview mirror market.
Rearview mirrors are being transformed into a high tech hub of automotive electronics. For its part, Ficosa is developing is a multiplex solution in order to reduce the amount of power required in the mirror. “We are also dedicated to installing antennae in mirrors for AM, FM, telephone, digital television, digital audio broadcasting and GPS,” said Vicenç Aguilera, managing director of Ficosa Technology. “The trend in the automotive business is that cars look nicer without antennae. So we are putting more and more antennae in the mirrors. In addition, we are putting cameras on the mirrors for driver assistance. We are also using some additional functions like day running light with LEDs.”
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Martin Kölbel, senior key account manager for Flabeg Holding GmbH agrees with these observations and anticipates that camera systems or radar systems for blind spot detection will become a standard. “Antennae will be integrated because car designers do not like the standard roof top antenna,” he told just-auto.
Flabeg has recently introduced a flat-aspheric mirror to the US market. It consists of an inner flat area that shows the field of view — as requested by regulations — and an outer area that is bent aspherically to eliminate the blind spot. The aspheric curve was chosen for the European market, says Kölbel. “Up to now, the combination of a flat and bent part in a single piece mirror was not possible. The advantages of this mirror against an additional spotter mirrors are the compatibility with standard backing plates and heaters. Also, the price is lower. We are also trying to penetrate the market with GControl, our low glare mirror. It reduces glare at night significantly.”
The popularity of other rearview mirror features continues to grow. For instance, LED turn signals have quickly entered the vehicle market with no signs of slowing-up as Aguilera told just-auto: “All car manufacturers are trying to put some design personality in the turn signal on the mirror. And there is no doubt that you can reach much better styling during the night using LEDs. It’s also more expensive because you need more electronics. However, the medium and premium cars will go toward LED solutions while the low cost cars will retain the bulb as a cheap solution. I think we’ll see 50% of cars with LED [turn signals] by 2014 and the rest fitted with bulbs.”
Meanwhile, Gentex has had some success in selling its so-called SmartBeam, a high beam headlamp assist system which automatically turns vehicle high beams on and off according to surrounding traffic conditions. To date, Gentex has shipped more than 1.5 million SmartBeam units since the feature debuted in the US in the 2005 model year and in Europe the following year.
Since then, some carmakers have adopted vehicle speed, yaw and pitch as well as steering sensors to control headlamp patterns and the direction the beams are pointing. Beyond the automatic dipping of the main beams, how close are we to seeing the application of the more advanced SmartBeam VFL variable forward lighting and DFL dynamic lighting systems? Connie Hamblin, corporate secretary and vice president, investor relations and corporate communications, told just-auto: “We currently expect that we should be able to announce new programmes for VFL in the next year or so, and the DFL should follow within a year of that. The adoption of VFL is contingent upon the adoption rates of newer headlamp technology, such as LEDs. We also expect that we will be able to announce initial programmes for other camera-based driver-assist features, such as lane departure warning, collision avoidance, etc., over the next two to three years.”
Electrochromic (auto-dimming) glass is a good application for rearview mirrors, and Gentex has broadened its product line to supply dimmable windows to Boeing for commercial airliners. So could the technology ever catch-on for, say, automotive roof glass? “The technology could catch on for automotive roof glass,” adds Hamblin, “but it would likely be in very low volume, primarily due to the cost. We have been asked to make prototype electrochromic sunroofs for very expensive concept cars, but we work to stay focused on our core products and business. Gentex’s business model is built around the company developing high tech products that consumers want, providing them in high volume at a low cost to the customer. “
As far as Gentex’s ambitions for dimmable windows for architectural applications are concerned, Hamblin concludes: “We believe that applications for architectural glass are still a number of years out, since there are a number of hurdles that still need to be overcome. The primary issue for all of the technologies out there is cost/square foot versus the expected payoff in energy savings. We continue to work to develop products in this area, and have the added benefit that improvements in the chemistry for the dimmable windows are applicable to the chemistry that we use for our auto-dimming mirror products.”
