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posted by
Fnord666
on Thursday January 02 2020, @04:15AM
from the What-could-possibly-go-wrong dept.
from the What-could-possibly-go-wrong dept.
Mirrors have been an integral part of motor vehicles for over a century. The low tech solution has solved the major visibility issues involved with driving and now car makers think they can do one better using cameras instead of mirrors. This may be an improvement in large trucks where visibility using mirrors can be poor to the point that obstacles directly in front and behind the vehicle cannot be seen but for cars it may prove to be a theft opportunity.
Best not to mount a mirror, or indeed a camera, directly in the line of fire of a neighboring car door in the parking lot. Maybe someone should tell them about the practicalities of life?
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Cameras to Replace Mirrors on Cars and Trucks
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I'm mentally OVERDRAWN! What's that SIGNPOST up ahead? Where's ROD
STERLING when you really need him?
(Score: 2, Disagree) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday January 02 2020, @04:50AM (6 children)
The sensor and the lens cost just a few dollars [adafruit.com], and the resale value is all but zero. A typical glass mirror is sold for about the same money [carparts.com] - between $25 and $50 new. It's just not profitable to steal mirrors, and you can't easily detach one either.
(Score: 2, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday January 02 2020, @06:32AM (4 children)
Official part will be many hundreds, and protected with DRM, so replacing it with the $2.00 part will be a DMCA violation.
I'm kinda surprised automakers haven't already gone full John Deer, and made things like alternators, starters and spark plugs have to perform a DRM handshake before working, but _new_ things are a perfect time to introduce these "protections"-- for your safety, of course.
(Score: 2, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday January 02 2020, @08:23AM (3 children)
Last time I replaced my battery, the car bricked itself. I had to have a mechanic come out with a $1000 professional-level scan tool and a procedure he printed off of Alldata to completely reset the car's computer. I thought I ruined the computer or something with a short, but he said that the entire generation and later of my car model is like that. Thank goodness he did it for free because I've gone there for years and he lived nearby, or that job would have cost me more than the AGM battery.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday January 02 2020, @03:30PM (2 children)
Make and model?
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday January 02 2020, @05:55PM
This is a common problem, the memory requires power to store anything. If you're going to do work like this, typically, you'll need a special tool to keep that circuitry powered while you do the replacement. I'm a bit skeptical that it outright bricked itself, but in some cars, they will make minor adjustments based upon sensor readings and may have to relearn what those readings should be by driving around.
Plugging what is essentially a UPS into the appropriate port will prevent that from happening. They're not even particularly expensive as all they do is keep the appropriate parts powered on while you change the battery.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday January 04 2020, @07:53PM
Sorry it took so long to get back. It's a Mercedes C-class, which probably goes a way to explain it. But my mechanic did say other cars have similar things that need reset when the battery changes, usually involving the anti-theft protection or keyless systems.
(Score: 2) by Nuke on Thursday January 02 2020, @11:47AM
FTFY