Ongoing General Automotive Thread 2.0

[photon]

Polestar 4 has no rear window. Is that even legal?

https://jalopnik.com/polestar-4-has-...-po-1850347758

[Fuzz]

Curious why it wouldn't be legal? All sorts of vehicles don't have rear windows.

[nik-]

If we ban cars with no rear window what am I going to do with my kidnapping van?

[Fuzz]

Originally Posted by nik-

If we ban cars with no rear window what am I going to do with my kidnapping van?

Paint some windows just above the "free candy" text.

[photon]

Originally Posted by Fuzz

Curious why it wouldn't be legal? All sorts of vehicles don't have rear windows.

Passenger vehicles? I couldn't think of any but I guess maybe I didn't think hard enough.

Does eliminate the problem of no rear wiper that some newer EVs have.

[Fuzz]

Originally Posted by photon

Passenger vehicles? I couldn't think of any but I guess maybe I didn't think hard enough.

Does eliminate the problem of no rear wiper that some newer EVs have.

Are there different rules between passenger cars, and, say, vans for things like mirrors? I didn't think there were.


This is from a better car site:

Legally, it should be fine, surprising as that sounds. The Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standard (FMSS) Number 111, Rear Visibility really just sets a lot of requirements for being able to see objects behind the car, and not so much about how those objects need to be visible:

https://www.theautopian.com/the-new-...ke-you-wanted/


Specs at the link. It does reference passangers cars under a certain weight, so maybe they do have different requirements.

[Bill Bumface]

I'm curious how much darker that makes the interior feel. I already hate how much the glass surface area has shrunk in cars with the high belt lines.

[Fuzz]

Originally Posted by Bill Bumface

I'm curious how much darker that makes the interior feel. I already hate how much the glass surface area has shrunk in cars with the high belt lines.

They said they did it so there was more headroom and glass above the passengers.

[photon]

My only concern would be keeping the camera clean and usable, but if it's way up on the roof that's probably much less of a problem than my license plate area camera that I have to wipe off constantly. But then I have a rear window I can look out of if I can't see out the camera.

Or if my camera fails, I have a rear window.

It does look pretty neat though, I'm sure some portion of of my reaction is "I'm getting older and I hate change".

[Wormius]

Originally Posted by photon

Passenger vehicles? I couldn't think of any but I guess maybe I didn't think hard enough.

Does eliminate the problem of no rear wiper that some newer EVs have.

I remember some Mustangs that looked like they had bizarro fins over the windows that I can’t imagine did anything other than obscure visibility.

I guess they aren’t actually too bad judging from some interior pics, but I think it would still drive me crazy a bit. Not sure how snow clearing would work!

https://www.allfordmustangs.com/thre...ouvres.306959/

[WhiteTiger]

Originally Posted by Wormius

I remember some Mustangs that looked like they had bizarro fins over the windows that I can’t imagine did anything other than obscure visibility.

I guess they aren’t actually too bad judging from some interior pics, but I think it would still drive me crazy a bit. Not sure how snow clearing would work!

https://www.allfordmustangs.com/thre...ouvres.306959/

The rear window ones aren't any sort of big deal. They are more noticeable, but are somewhat akin to the 'heating lines' most rear windows already have. The quarter windows are much harder to see out of...but you don't look out of them while driving anyhow, unless you contort yourself like Plastic Man, so no big deal there, either.

Snow clearing is easy enough. It's a flat surface to brush off like steps instead of the angled slope of a window.

[karl262]

Originally Posted by nik-

If we ban cars with no rear window what am I going to do with my kidnapping van?

There's still time!

[Barnes]

Originally Posted by photon

My only concern would be keeping the camera clean and usable, but if it's way up on the roof that's probably much less of a problem than my license plate area camera that I have to wipe off constantly. But then I have a rear window I can look out of if I can't see out the camera.

Or if my camera fails, I have a rear window.

It does look pretty neat though, I'm sure some portion of of my reaction is "I'm getting older and I hate change".

My parents have a Caddy that has a camera separate from the backup camera and the rear view mirror is a screen. The camera is high up so it doesnt get as dirty and has a little squriter that cleans it fairly well.

It's very weird to use though. Its great because you can see way more even most of your blindspot but it is jarring. A quick peak up at the mirror is no longer quick as it takes my brain a few microseconds longer to register that it's screen and its not out of the back window. You also expect to catch a glimpse of yourself or your passengers which you dont. Also, some LED headlights appear to strobe. I think it's cheap ones with low refresh rates.

[Bill Bumface]

Originally Posted by Barnes

My parents have a Caddy that has a camera separate from the backup camera and the rear view mirror is a screen.

These are terrible, as instead of using your distance vision (which hopefully people with vision correction prioritize when they drive) you're using your near vision.

Imagine trying to look into that mirror wearing progressives.

And this is a Cadillac... their target demographic is all in on progressives or reading glasses.

Interesting to hear it takes your brain a second to piece it all together as well, that sounds less than ideal, and kind of fatiguing.

[DoubleF]

Originally Posted by Wormius

I remember some Mustangs that looked like they had bizarro fins over the windows that I can’t imagine did anything other than obscure visibility.

I guess they aren’t actually too bad judging from some interior pics, but I think it would still drive me crazy a bit. Not sure how snow clearing would work!

https://www.allfordmustangs.com/thre...ouvres.306959/

You can actually see out of those. They're like shutter sunglasses.

I was thinking more like the Countach. I guess it technically qualifies as having a back window...

[Fuzz]

Originally Posted by Bill Bumface

These are terrible, as instead of using your distance vision (which hopefully people with vision correction prioritize when they drive) you're using your near vision.

Imagine trying to look into that mirror wearing progressives.

And this is a Cadillac... their target demographic is all in on progressives or reading glasses.

Interesting to hear it takes your brain a second to piece it all together as well, that sounds less than ideal, and kind of fatiguing.

If they replace the back missing window area with a monitor instead, they could have the monitor show what the camera sees and you look in a mirror at it, resulting in more "distance" and less focus issues. This is the perfect solution.

[Sliver]

Originally Posted by timun

The crap Tesla owners are willing to put up with never ceases to amaze me

Geez, I thanked this post a week ago and now I want to try a Model 3 Performance. It's in the price range I've been looking at, and that 0-100 of 3.3 is just so ####ing blisteringly fast that I have to at least try it.

[undercoverbrother]

Originally Posted by Sliver

Geez, I thanked this post a week ago and now I want to try a Model 3 Performance. It's in the price range I've been looking at, and that 0-100 of 3.3 is just so ####ing blisteringly fast that I have to at least try it.

What is the price range ?

[Sliver]

Originally Posted by undercoverbrother

What is the price range ?

Model 3 starts at $55k (less $5k gov't tax credit). The Performance starts at $73k (no tax credit).

By no means cheap, but on the performance model that's supercar territory at a fraction of the price. Doesn't have supercar handling, obvs, but that is so fast it's nucking futs.

[Erick Estrada]

Originally Posted by Sliver

Geez, I thanked this post a week ago and now I want to try a Model 3 Performance. It's in the price range I've been looking at, and that 0-100 of 3.3 is just so ####ing blisteringly fast that I have to at least try it.

I consider myself pretty objective when it comes to vehicles as I've owned most of the brands over the years, never sticking with one so I'm not going to say Tesla's are great because I own one as there's good and bad with these vehicles. I suspect after a test drive you will probably find it better than you expected while noticing the inherent flaws in that it's noisy (to keep weight down there's less noise insulation than typical vehicles) and dealing with a screen for the majority of functions is never going to be optimal. Some issues you may not notice during a test drive is that the auto-wiper and auto-high beam functions are highly unreliable and are best left off. A lot of the build quality problems are day one issues like misaligned panels, paint issues, misaligned glass, etc. If you get a good one off the assembly line it's likely to turn out reasonably reliable. I can't speak for the other models but the Performance is extremely quick in all situations but over time you adjust to it and the novelty wears a little. Overall it doesn't grab my attention or excite me like some of my previous ICE vehicles but it's been cheap to operate for me and I really don't have a lot of complaints as it's been a solid commuter car.