renegademaster
Member
The new BYD-AD ev Enivros have cameras and screens rather than mirrors. I don't really like the idea, feel unreliable. They should at least have back up old fashioned mirrors , it's only like £100 on top of a £100k(?) bus
Do you drive buses on a regular basis? If so, please explain how they feel unreliable.The new BYD-AD ev Enivros have cameras and screens rather than mirrors. I don't really like the idea, feel unreliable. They should at least have back up old fashioned mirrors , it's only like £100 on top of a £100k(?) bus
No, it's just my laymans gut feeling, and experiences with modern electronics . All my friends with post 2020 cars that seem to spend most of the time at the garage with electrical problems. Once I heard about someone's Tesla reversing cam dyingDo you drive buses on a regular basis? If so, please explain how they feel unreliable.
Let's put this one out to the people who actually drive buses and coaches for a living and see what they say about it.No, it's just my laymans gut feeling, and experiences with modern electronics . All my friends with post 2020 cars that seem to spend most of the time at the garage with electrical problems. Once I heard about someone's Tesla reversing cam dying
I'd be more than happy to hear bus drivers opinion it. Bet they are very useful tool , I'm just a bit of technophobe and adding some backup real mirrors doesn't seem like too much of an ordeal for Alexander DennisLet's put this one out to the people who actually drive buses and coaches for a living and see what they say about it.
They’re lovely (camera mirrors). On all the buses I’ve driven that have them, they’ve had a wide angle lens as well as a regular one, which actually gives you a blindspot check.
Plus, passengers can’t smack their heads on them and often they have heating/cleaning mechanisms so they have better visibility than physical mirrors.
Just my opinion, but it seems to be the common one among drivers
Tbf that's only a 5 minute fix you can do with hand tools, defective camera is probably a much bigger jobbut likewise it's not entirely uncommon for mirrors to get broken or even knocked off
I've seen them on a premium car now too, I think it was some sort of BMW. I suspect all vehicles will get them in due course (indeed, I'm surprised cars with reversing cameras don't have them always-on in place of a rear view mirror given that that'd be so easy to do). Only thing I heard about the car ones I don't like is that they're just displayed on the centre console screen rather than, as per buses, mounted high up on the windscreen roughly where mirrors would usually be.
I like the best of both worlds, on the new Hyundai and Kia premium (well their version of premium) the camera below the old fashioned mirror will turn into a blind spot camera, displaying the results on whichever side of the instrument panel you have indicated. I have found their cameras all round to be decent quality compared to even some of the premium modelsA good quality camera and screen is quite expensive* and is another thing to go wrong on a car (which may well be maintained a lot less frequently than a bus) and the issue with the third-party ones you can buy for a car (rear view mirror) is that the brightness needs to be very high, which can generate heat and lead to failure of the backlight over time, and the camera must have a high dynamic range - so not some cheap image sensor and/or poor quality plastic lenses. The design also needs to allow for the camera to remain unobstructed by dirt, so maybe has a washer system or is positioned in such a way that the aerodynamics of the car keep it clear.
Some can switch from video to being a normal mirror, but I assume the cameras on a bus are going to be of a higher quality and hopefully modular so easily replaced if they fail?
* On a premium car, it might seem like a cool thing to one-up the neighbours and so prove popular.
I think the problem no one is taking about is the homelessness problem camera mirrors create in the spider community
That assumes it's only one bus losing its mirror - if it goes into the back of the bus in front, you've then got two buses out of service and often a £££'s repair bill for a new rear window.Tbf that's only a 5 minute fix you can do with hand tools, defective camera is probably a much bigger job