Berlin - Most drivers take the car rear-view mirror for granted, and few realise that this simple idea owes its origin to the resourceful Dorothy Levitt, once billed as the Fastest Girl on Earth.
Around 100 years ago, British-born Dorothy noted in her pioneering book, The Woman and the Car: A Chatty Little Handbook for the Edwardian Motoriste, that ladies should carry a little reflective hand-mirror in a convenient place when driving.
This was so they may “hold the mirror aloft from time to time in order to see behind while driving in traffic,” she wrote.
The book was a rarity in the male-dominated world of automobiles. Dorothy's idea did not catch on straight away and it was not until a few years later that most drivers were able to look back into a mirror and see what was behind them.
It was a major advance in safety.
Mirrors, fixed to the ceiling or dashboard, or outside on the door or front wing, have continued little changed into the digital age. But camera-based rear-view technologies are now arriving for everyday driving.
From around 1914 onwards the rear-view mirror gradually became a standard car fitting.
Shortly before that, racing driver Ray Harroun had mounted a mirror on his Marmon Wasp car for the very first edition of the Indianapolis 500 event. His idea was save weight by doing away with the need to carry the usual mechanic, who acted as a scout by telling the driver the positions of rival cars.
US inventor Elmer Berger is also often cited as having come up with the rear-view mirror. He patented it first.
The iconic Ford Model T, which was produced until 1927, came with a rear-view mirror and during the 1930s and '40s, cars gradually acquired the fitting, either mounted inside or outside the vehicle.
Today's rear-view mirrors are full of technical wizardry.
Many contain video cameras and the mirror surfaces can be heated to avoid misting over when the interior of the car cools during overnight parking. There are also mirrors with buzzers to warn of objects just outside the driver's field of vision.
Nissan recently came up with a “smart rear-view mirror” which uses an LCD monitor instead of mirrored glass.
While some testers have quipped that this is a solution in search of a problem to solve, Nissan states: “The high-quality camera and image processing system implemented in the LCD monitor consistently results in a clear image with minimal glare, even during sunrise or sunset conditions or when the vehicle is being followed by a vehicle with strong headlights.”
GOING DIGITAL
Around a century on, technology has produced some credible digital replacements.
The futuristic, fuel-sipping XL1 made by Volkswagen has no outside rear-view mirrors at all - in order to enhance its aerodynamics. Cameras take over their role.
Electric carmaker Tesla unveiled a concept in 2012 that was devoid of bodywork mirrors, just as Porsche omits them from its Panamera Sport Turismo. The 918 Spyder supercar also dispensed with mirrors.
“This poses no technical problem at all”, said company spokesman Hermann-Josef Stappen. “Car-standards legislation is however lagging behind the technological reality.”
German traffic laws permit rear-view mirrors to be replaced by monitoring “devices which enable indirect sight,” yet carmakers are waiting first to see whether revised standards internationally will allow them to fit high-tech, rear-view cameras as standard equipment.
“It has been a long-drawn-out procedure lasting several years,” said VW spokesman Michael Franke, with a nod to the lengthy type approval negotiations needed before the so-called E-mirror fitted to the XL1 can be sold in global markets.
ECE regulations, which apply to much of the world outside the United States, specify that a car must be fitted with two outside rear-view mirrors. Camera systems are only sanctioned for a range of trucks.
Sapa-dpa