Smarter mirrors?

I may be giving away more than I should but sometimes a competitor yesterday or today can be a partner/ally tomorrow.

I have a few other threads, one is my build thread the other inquiring about interest in a 360* camera system. This thread pertains to my obsession with European exterior side mirrors and what they're capable of doing. Yes, I'm fishing for interest and it's highly possible others are looking into the same thing, it is what it is and there's plenty of interest in Tacos to go around so to speak.

A few enthusiasts and I are looking into really smart side mirrors and have already determined the room exists for "additions". The first would be wide-angle downward looking cameras as mentioned in the other thread which via software could offer a birdseye view. The other is again another obsession of mine with power folding mirrors. You could argue that it's something else to break then again anything designed well stands a better chance of surviving the long haul. I personally cannot tell you how many times I've had my side mirrors jacked out of place in parking lots, pulling up to an ATM or driving off-road. I have a niece who has had her fair share of side mirrors completely ripped off in parking lots although the family is convinced she has more to do with this than she lets on. There's a reason the Europeans require power folding mirrors, their roads and parking spaces are narrower than ours, if you want to keep your mirrors you fold them in, simple.

But I don't want to stop there, many fancier vehicles have an option to dip the mirrors when you put the vehicle in reverse and this is actually very helpful and can be toggled off/on. Dipping the mirrors also works to control glare from vehicles behind us with the brights on or misaligned headlights the way we used to manipulate the "switch" on old style inside mirrors. Not stopping here, I/we are thinking of puddle lights which are also an easy add.

The big one here is incorporating ditch lights into the mirror base housing adjacent to the door itself which is already separately removable. Ditch lights don't have to be massive lumen output, they're only lighting up the area between the A-pillar and front cap and not much to the side so very large LED's are not required here.

The last addition is a convex mirror like every other vehicle manufacturer on earth is doing, I hate going to an auto parts store and buying the stick on convex mirrors, they look like sh!t and can be so easily added to the OEM mirror.

So that's my idea of a custom truly smart mirror and quite a bit of the components used to make this happen are current Toyota/Lexus parts and available. Even the space to place the mirror fold switch exists right to the left of our mirror adjustment knob and is used on new Hilux's. So what do you think, worthwhile to develop or not?

 

Do it. I love how the mirrors on my BMW auto dim at night, and the passenger side dips down in reverse.

 

You can swap the convex mirrors from the rav4 into ours

 

Do it. I'm interested!

 

Auto dim is dangerous. My ex gf had it on her Lexus. You will not be able to see people that drive with their headlights off... It would make it almost black. That was THE ONLY REASON blind spot monitoring was useful...

 

Meh. I don't rely on my mirrors when changing lanes, I just don't like the giblet heads with their SUVs and trucks to blind me when I'm in my little rocket ship. Doubt it'll hold up with your insurance if you tell them you changed lanes into someone because your blind spot monitor gizmo didn't warn you.

 

The dip in reverse would be great. I would really like automatic close for tight streets or parking and I'm driving solo. But that's probably a complete redesign.

 

Awesome! Thank you for this, I just checked and it looks as if the Rav4 also has BSM so I have to assume they will swap just fine. I'll be getting on this shortly...

 

Not that much of a complete redesign as one might think, the Rav4 is available in Europe so it is highly likely the motor and associated bits already exist to make our lowly North American non-power folding mirrors, power folding mirrors.

 

Sounds good to me... Would also request auto dim, however.

 

Proceed.....yes, interested.

 

Keen on seeing where you end up with the 360 system as I've been curious about them for awhile. Having a convex feature may be available soon via a fellow TW member. I used the heated "EZView Mirrors" from @SMKYTXN and love them. I'm not privy to his next addition to his product line but 3rd get mirrors might be on his horizon.

 

I hab a 2003 Suburban that had side mirrors that automatically dipped when you put transmission in reverse, they were great! Would love to see that idea.

 

Okay, here's what a bit of research just determined yes, the Rav4 mirrors will work but....if you purchase the versions with BSM you won't get the convex spot mirrors which makes sense to Toyota but not me. My BSM does not always work well in fact it seems to require something metallic to reflect off of before it triggers the amber warning lights in my mirrors and I really prefer having both BSM and spot mirrors since there are those times when nothing works as well as spot mirrors however I wouldn't give up my BSM. The Taco's BSM sensors are actually located in the back lower rear corners of the bed.

So, you would actually need to purchase both replacement parts Rav4 BSM and non-BSM then get creative. The mirror glass from the BSM version would need to be removed then cut to fit the spot mirror version then reattached so you'd have both features. Yep, a bit of work but hey if you want cake and want to eat cake you do what needs doing. I will do some more research to see about the folding motor system and how that will apply to our Taco mirror housings but preliminary findings indicate there's plenty of room for a motor, camera, ditch and puddle lights. The cool thing here, whether the mirrors are folded or not has no bearing on the functionality of the ditch lights or camera system since there mounted in the base which is fixed. The other cool thing is, the angle of the base is already perfectly aimed for ditch lights.

 

I'd definitely like to see where this is going.

I do have the the 3rd gen ezview mirrors in the works @G.T. Backing plate, BSM, defrost film, and the EZView mirror profile.

 

never heard of your page etc until now but just looking.

I'd love one of those FJ ezview mirror things. (its the first one I clicked)
but to see the rear tires, blind spot and still keep the heated defrosting mirror part.

please expand to 3rd gens


I had those convex on my jetta, and I would love to see them on the tacoma.
hell all new f150s etc have it, fuck even ford focus has them now.
has a small part to the mirror that is convex instead.
would love to see it on the tacoma.
Just regardless of who makes them DO NOT go with that bluish film that's supposed to help prevent headlight glare.

After a year or so they got like a rusty/water in oil type look of rainbow color to the point where I could no longer see in them so had to get rid of them and go back to stock ones, and wasn't ready to spend the $100 for a new set when the tacoma was coming.

 

which year?

 

From what I discovered 2016-2017 will get you BSM as well just going to require some work to make it work. Yes it is ridiculous that most vehicles have the spot mirrors built-in it makes so much sense.

 

mines a TRD Off road, canadian models don't get BSM so don't care for it.
just want the convex mirror and camera for parallel parking in the city. especially the front camera.