Rear View Mirrors Rethought - Gentex's Electronic Full Display Mirror in GM Vehicles

Editor's Note: I just returned from the 2016 Chicago Auto Show, where I had the opportunity to sit behind the wheel of the 2017 Chevrolet Bolt (no not Volt but Bolt). The B was equipped with a Gentex rear-view mirror and it impressed the heck out of me. the image as clear and bright and a big headed back seat passenger or a Bolt full of boxes would not hinder rear viewing...

fbjx

By Steve Purdy
The Auto Channel
Michigan Bureau

Had this technology been available in 1963 we may have had a split window Corvette for many more years. That beautiful design went away partly because you couldn’t see out the back through the rear view mirror. Well, the Gentex Corporation of Zeeland, Michigan has a solution that could pave the way for more design flexibility and safety, giving drivers a much better rear view.

Gentex has been putting tons of technology into inside rearview mirrors for years. Think about the Homelink garage door systems, microphones for your hands free phone, telematics like OnStar and similar services and particularly the automatic dimming function. Gentex has about 90% of that latter market. You would be amazed, as was I, at the number of functions that can and do reside within the humble rear view mirror.

Now, we’ll soon see application of Gentex’s new Full Display Mirror in three GM products – Cadillac’s CT6 luxury sedan and XT5 crossover and Chevy’s new Bolt full electric small hatchback. At least three other automakers have slated these mirrors to be on future vehicles but those projects are still a bit too hush-hush to be revealed here. According to our source, Craig Piersma, Gentex Director of Marketing, we’ll be seeing this system in more and more cars very soon.

The Gentex Full Display Mirror augments conventional rear view mirrors and is integrated therein. A camera, similar to the now-ubiquitous back-up camera, resides somewhere on the rear of the car, preferable on a fairly high perch, and gathers video images for software to interpret creating an image that fills the otherwise reflective mirror surface. What the driver sees is a panoramic, unobstructed, clear view of what’s behind.

If you pay attention you’ll notice that current rear view mirrors are seriously obstructed by passengers’ heads, cargo, head rests and the car’s C-pillars. Modern design trends, like fashionably sloping rear rooflines and more massive rear pillars exacerbate the problem. Gentex says these obstructions amount to 15 to 30%, but it could easily be more.

We still could not get along without our conventional mirrors though. For one thing we must keep track of the miscreants in the back seat, and the outside camera for the Full Display Mirror will get fouled by road salt and the elements. Also, Federal standards will continue to require current versions of the mirrors for some time to come.

Without a change in Federal requirements I guess we’ll not be seeing a C7 Corvette with split rear window. We’ll expect Gentex to keep up the effort to make the Full Display Mirror more and more common and that may eventually free up designers to do more wild and crazy things.