Nissan eliminates blind spots with rear-view mirror that doubles as a wide-angle LCD

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As car tech goes, here’s a small but useful step forward: Nissan created a rear-view mirror with a full-width LCD that shows a wide angle view behind you. The video feed comes from a rear-mounted camera. Flip a switch on the mirror and it reverts to being a traditional reflective mirror. Flip back and it’s a camera again.

Nissan will unveil the mirror at the Geneva Motor Show next week. It will first be used at the 24 Hours of LeMans Race on a car that doesn’t have any significant rear view other than the side mirrors. Nissan hasn’t said what passenger car it would be on. It will be offered this spring as a dealer add-on accessory in the Japanese market, followed by an introduction to global markets in 2015.Special 4:1 aspect ratio LCD

Nissan said it developed a special 4:1 aspect ratio LCD that fits inside the rear review mirror. Even a 16:9 wide-angle LCD common on laptops or desktops would be too squarish. It’s linked to a 1.3-megapixel camera at the rear of the vehicle. In an artist rendering, the camera is mounted at the top of the window glass on a crossover SUV. It isn’t clear where it would go in a sedan — perhaps on the trunk or rear window glass.

According to Andy Palmer, chief planning officer and executive vice president of Nissan, “[The Smart mirror] offers the possibility of new and exciting designs for our upcoming models because Smart rearview mirror is an alternative to a very wide rear window for good visibility. We’ll have the flexibility to create new shapes, and to further improve aerodynamics for better fuel efficiency.”

Put another way, Nissan is playing catch-up on visibility, but faster than the competition: car designs with high rear deck lids and big C (rear) pillars already restrict rear visibility, so this restores the rear vision drivers lost in the last generation. Also, SUVs with more side pillars generally have worse rear vision than cars.