Gadgetory

for years we've seen concept cars that use cameras for side mirrors but those have only been on Auto Show floors but now BMW is showing us a side view camera system on the road here demonstrated in a BMW i8 at CES we're driving down the Las Vegas Boulevard and I've got four cameras in this car two on side skrutz where your normal side view mirrors would be and two on the rear glass now the input from those cameras is showing up on a display where your normal rear-view mirror would be this display is a little bit taller than a standard rear view mirror but it gives a nice wide image and it shows me everything that's behind me and to either side and instead of just single images from each camera they've actually fused the image to one display this actually looks like the imagery from a single camera and it's showing everything that's behind me it's actually a really beautiful view and a really clear view to and beyond the single fused rear view image we also have smart cameras here so we have a display that gives me a blind spot warning if there's a car on my left or right this warns me if they're there by flashing red on either side letting me know if it's safe to change lanes or not and another advantage of the system is that the cameras on the sides of the car are actually slimmer than you'd get with a normal side view mirror so that makes better aerodynamics longer range in a car and it even reduces some of the noise in the cabin from wind now this system is a concept right now but BMW is testing this with some intent to production there's no dates yet but they're gonna be testing this in Europe in 2016 in the US and 2017 and looking at putting this system in worldwide cars now driving with the system around Las Vegas I've had to make some mental adjustments to how I normally Drive looking to the center instead of the side mirrors to see what's - either side of me but it works really well I'm really impressed and it'll be good to see the system on the road I think it'll improve safety quite a bit you