- Aug 19, 2001
- 1,628
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What's to stop us from designing a side mirror mechanism that protrudes ~1-2" from the vehicle but provides equal or better visibility? It's been a very long time since I've done any physics problems with mirrors and images, but from what I remember, I can't think of a theoretical reason why we can't do this.
To be honest, I'm interested in this mainly because I figure smaller side mirrors would lead to a reduction in wind noise at highway speeds. A secondary benefit, and probably the selling point for most other people, would be a reduction in drag. I'd imagine that greater gains in fuel economy could be had from engine design and weight reduction, but at some point of diminishing returns, reducing drag might be worthwhile.
My thought is this:
1) A small convex mirror in an aerodynamic but protruding "nub" would serve to reflect light from external objects
2) Inside the vehicle there would be some kind of adjustable lens system to redistribute rays from that mirror onto a flat mirror (to reverse the distortion from the convex mirror).
3) Driver would look on the interior flat mirrors.
My thinking is that while cameras would probably be lighter weight, they add complexity and a point of failure that I doubt government regulations would accept. So we keep the mirrors but move some of the mechanism inside the vehicle. It's not like most of us use the outside edges of our dashboards anyway.
But really, this is all to reduce wind noise at highway speeds.
To be honest, I'm interested in this mainly because I figure smaller side mirrors would lead to a reduction in wind noise at highway speeds. A secondary benefit, and probably the selling point for most other people, would be a reduction in drag. I'd imagine that greater gains in fuel economy could be had from engine design and weight reduction, but at some point of diminishing returns, reducing drag might be worthwhile.
My thought is this:
1) A small convex mirror in an aerodynamic but protruding "nub" would serve to reflect light from external objects
2) Inside the vehicle there would be some kind of adjustable lens system to redistribute rays from that mirror onto a flat mirror (to reverse the distortion from the convex mirror).
3) Driver would look on the interior flat mirrors.
My thinking is that while cameras would probably be lighter weight, they add complexity and a point of failure that I doubt government regulations would accept. So we keep the mirrors but move some of the mechanism inside the vehicle. It's not like most of us use the outside edges of our dashboards anyway.
But really, this is all to reduce wind noise at highway speeds.