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posted by Fnord666 on Thursday January 02 2020, @04:15AM   Printer-friendly
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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  • (Score: 4, Insightful) by damnbunni on Thursday January 02 2020, @09:10AM (1 child)

    by damnbunni (704) on Thursday January 02 2020, @09:10AM (#938533) Journal

    I'd rather have a really reliable piece of overengineered crap that simply doesn't need to be maintained much.

    Yeah, I can't rebuild my VW's engine in my driveway the way I could my 1978 Marquis.

    But in 12 years and 200,000 miles, I've never NEEDED to, either.

    Hell, I've only had two things on it break that weren't normal maintenance items, and one of those was covered under warranty. The other was a suspension bit after hitting a bigass pothole at 160,000 miles.

    Oh wait, the 'low tech' headliner fell, too.

    The fact of the matter is even the crappiest new car you can buy in the US these days is pretty damn reliable.

    I'm actually replacing my car this week, but more because 'I have had this a long time and I'm tired of it' than 'this is broken and fixing it is too expensive' which is usually when I buy another car. Shopping without the pressure of 'I need a car to get to work this week!' is novel, lemme tell ya.

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  • (Score: 2) by Oakenshield on Thursday January 02 2020, @03:18PM

    by Oakenshield (4900) on Thursday January 02 2020, @03:18PM (#938633)

    You have been lucky. In December, I had to replace my car's anti-lock brake actuator assembly at the dealership and it cost me over $2,000. This was after it failed in a panic stop when some asshole tried to turn left in front of me when he failed to look before he acted. Since it's a complicated hybrid, none of the regular repair shops wanted anything to do with it.