In a nutshell: Aston Martin wants to improve the driver visibility for owners of its luxury sports cars and has partnered with Gentex to develop a new rearview camera-based system for monitoring traffic to the rear and sides of the car while keeping conventional mirrors in place.
Digital rearview mirrors and side-mounted cameras on cars have been around for some time now, but they're unlikely to replace conventional mirrors anytime soon. That's why Aston Martin has taken a hybrid approach for its new tri-camera monitoring system, which uses cameras integrated into the car's roof and side mirrors to stream their video feed to the digital rearview mirror.
The Full Display Mirror, co-developed with Gentex, is meant to provide a comprehensive view of the car's side and rear in a single glance and also serves an auto-dimming unit when not being used as an LCD.
During operation, "the driver can choose between various viewing modes that present the three camera feeds in various intuitive combination views." said the company in its press release.
Gentex also highlights the fail-safe aspect of the technology, where the driver can continue to use the car's conventional interior and exterior mirrors in case of bad weather or a technical failure disrupting the video feed to the rearview display.
An auto-adjust feature allows the cameras to update the field of view according to the driver's positioning of the mirrors for optimal display on the rearview mirror, which itself is offered in different types of flat and curved glass to meet various regional regulatory requirements.
The system is expected to appear in "future Aston Martin models," and a prototype will be shown off at the upcoming CES show in Las Vegas.