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Comment by paradox460 | Hacker News Reader

My recent model Subaru Ascent came with a "smart mirror". When enabled, the rear view mirror is actually a display, showing a view of what a rear camera, mounted high in the rear window, sees. This is not the backup camera, it's got one of those too, down by the license plate.

At first I had a little bit of skepticism. I figured it would be useful when the back is full of cargo or whatever, but limited beyond that.

A year on and I scarcely use the "real" mirror. The image on the camera is brighter at night, has less obstruction of the cars pillars and such, and it's automatic gain control reduces the amount of blinding a big truck behind me can cause

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How do you deal with grime, dirt, rain, snow?

The rear view cameras on cars I've driven are often useless even in parking scenarios because of that.

Or 6 years from now when the camera fails and is no longer a part available from the manufacturer

This is actually not an issue. Nearly every single car manufacturer uses the exact same camera module, and have for like a decade now.

The standard is that head units have a composite video input that simply gets switched to whenever you put it into reverse, and any overlays are done in the head unit.

These are utterly standard parts, and the entire auto industry could die tomorrow and you would still have zero problem sourcing this part for decades to come.

It doesn't matter which make or model of car you have.

They're so ubiquitous, and tiny, that they've started to see common use in the model rail community

On my Renault Megane e-Tech the cameare is placed at the top of the rear window, and due to the small "shelf" on the top of the roof above, it's quite sheltered.

I often find that I forget to wipe the rear window because I have no trouble seeing with the camera.

However the wiper does go over the area covered by the camera, so with snow in particular the wiper works wonders.

I have a Subaru Outback and the back up camera is basically useless during the winter. I'll clean it before I leave in the morning and it will be covered in filth the next time I put the car in reverse. Even rain seems to cause it grief. Maybe they've improved the design since 2019 though.

When the backup camera isn't covered in grime it really helps with parking though.

On the ascent, it's up very high on the car, slightly under the spoiler. It's got the washer fluid spout right above it, and is at the apex of the curve of the rear wiper, so any grime gets maximum detergent and wiping action. Since it's a tiny little patch, maybe a couple square inches, it's easy to keep clean, as opposed to the whole windshield

Interestingly enough, the actual "backup camera" is mounted lower than the rear view camera, down by the license plate. When you run the rear sprayer, it actually squirts a bit of fluid over the lense of that camera too. Still not as good a solution as Mercedes, who just hides the camera behind a flap when it's not in use, but better than nothing

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