One of the most important things for any driver is the ability to see their surroundings well, especially when the car needs to be parked. For a long time, in this tedious process, you could only rely on rear-view mirrors, rear windows and intuition. Subsequently, parking sensors have become a great help, but a real revolution happened when the first rear view cameras appeared. What technological advances have they acquired and with what characteristics do they help us?
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Did you know that the first rear view camera for cars was introduced in 1959? The innovative solution became the business card of the Buick Centurion concept, and the system was presented as a luxury equipment. On the other hand, the VESC rear monitoring of the 1972 Volvo concept car was offered as a safety tool.
Although this system is quite old, its debut in production cars had to wait a long time: it was first installed in 1990 on the Toyota Soarer for the Japanese market. Another major turning point was in 2018 when a rear view camera became mandatory for all cars sold in the US and the main argument for the new requirement was safety.
Backend monitoring systems have evolved significantly over time. Now they allow you to see not only what’s behind the car, but also its immediate surroundings. This is possible thanks to 360-degree surround vision systems, which use not one, but several cameras installed in different areas of the vehicle.
Initially, these systems were mostly equipped with various representatives of the luxury class, but now also compact cars, such as the “Volkswagen Golf” and the ever-popular SUV “Toyota RAV4”, as well as the entire model range “Peugeot “: from the small “208” to the seven-seater “5008”.
A photo alone is not enough
While the camera is supposed to help prevent collisions with other vehicles and hitting static obstacles and thus save you damage and all kinds of inconvenience, this is not always the case in practice. The system can only really help if it shows a very clear picture. Unfortunately, even the latest models tend to disappoint in this regard.
“Progress in this area could be compared to the development of mobile phone cameras. Initially the image was not very good, but as time went by everything changed for the better and now we can enjoy great results. Unfortunately, sometimes when get into a new car and turn the reverse gear, even the cameras still tend to upset, moreover, the problems are not only in relatively cheap cars,” says Guntars Puls, editor of “Profi Latvija” magazine and Latvian Car permanent member of the jury of the year.
Mention the most important functions and conditions that determine the quality of the product inserted into the machine. “For the driver to see a good image, the camera needs to be of high quality and well adjusted. The differences are particularly noticeable in bad driving conditions: in good light and dry weather, even a reversing camera will show an acceptable image image, but if it is raining and dark, the image will be grainy and for the driver this system will not be of much help. It is also important to have the contrast properly adjusted, so that the image is not too light and dark, and l lens – on the one hand, it requires a wide enough viewing angle, but on the other hand, the image shouldn’t be too distorted,” says Guntars.
“I’ll give you a cosmic example. Once NASA launched a satellite without removing the lens cap, so it didn’t help. It’s the same with rear view cameras in cars. If it’s installed in the wrong place and the view is partially blocked from a bumper or boot lid, the real benefit automatically decreases.Of course, it’s also important to keep the camera clean, but if it rains a lot in a certain country or you drive a lot on country roads, it’s not that easy. the best solution is hidden cameras when they are not in use. And on the positive side, more and more manufacturers are equipping cameras with washing nozzles,” adds Guntars.
One of the latest models with a rear view camera wash function, the “Peugeot 408”, uses glass fluid from the common tank for this purpose and the camera is washed when it is activated.
Not only the camera is important
The rear view camera is only one of the components of the surrounding surveillance system, so it is important that all elements are of high quality and always fulfill their tasks. This means that not only the camera is important, but also the computer and the screen. “Sometimes the camera gives an excellent picture, but the screen lacks the resolution to display it. The whole system needs to work in harmony, because only then will the driver receive visual information without delays or deceptions,” points out Guntars Pols.
“Volkswagen up, for example, has a small screen, so it’s not a perfect helper. But in this particular case, it might be justified by the compactness of the car itself. Also, you can see everything clearly in this car too, because it has windows large, flat sides and practically vertical back. On the other hand, a screen that is too large can also be a hindrance, because it is difficult to perceive the whole image. In my opinion, the optimal size would be eight inches”, adds the journalist.
In this sense, automakers are really competing to offer motorists the best technology package.
In any case, since the introduction of rear view cameras in production cars, considerable progress has been made in this area, and some manufacturers are paying more attention to them, taking into account all aspects of car operation. Now we have to wait what else they will come up with to make our everyday life more pleasant.
