Auto-dimming Rear View Mirror
One of the biggest nuisances when you’re driving at night is the idiot behind you who has forgotten to dim his headlights. Of course most cars these days are fitted with a manual adjustment that allows you to change the alignment of the mirror but what if you could have a mirror that automatically adjusted when the light from behind became too much?
Well there is such a mirror and it’s made by the American company Gentex Corporation. It’s operation sounds simple enough.
A forward facing sensor monitors the ambient light and alerts the mirror to begin looking for glare.
A rear facing sensor below the mirror detects the glare from lights on vehicles travelling behind you and sends a voltage to an electrochromic gel that is sandwiched between the two pieces of glass that make up the mirror.
The gel dims the reflection in proportion to the glare and then clears when the glare has gone.
The mirror already comes fitted as either standard equipment or parto of an option package to more than 150 vehicles and can be retro-fitted to many more.
You can read more about the mirror here but unfortunately the mirror does not appear to be available in Australia:(