Are your vehicle’s side view mirrors going away?

Aside from running boards and rumble seats, are side view mirrors also on their way out? If the Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA) buses in New York City are the forerunners, then they are.

The authority said it is launching a pilot program where standard side-view mirrors will be replaced by electronic mirrors after analyzing accident data and maintenance costs for 2022.

At the MTA board meeting on April 26, 2023, Richard Davey, president of New York City Transit, announced the pilot program. Davey stated that the authority discovered that 25% of all of its yearly bus crashes contain a mirror after reviewing the data from 2022 and years prior. That amounts to 1,800 collisions in 2022 alone that involve mirrors.

“It sounds pretty simple, but when we did the deep dive, it’s the large mirrors you see on our buses that are hitting street poles, other cars, and the dining structures in our rights of way,” he added. Both our maintenance expenses and our legal settlements are increasing as a result.

Additionally, Davey noted that during these maintenance intervals, buses typically miss two trips for each repair. The organization has thus started to think about how to “harness technology and data to improve productivity” through the deployment of E-mirrors.

“We’re looking at e-mirrors, cameras, and screens that would replace the mirrors,” Davey said.

Davey also pointed out that the adoption of E-mirrors might increase the safety of MTA drivers. E-mirrors, according to him, would offer “as good or better visibility to drivers.”

The potential to bring the entire cockpit over the driver’s space, he continued, “in order to keep them fully secure and away from any assaults,” would also be unlocked by doing this, in his opinion.

The program will be put into effect in the upcoming months, according to Davey.