The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA) has granted a five-year exemption to install MirrorEye camera-monitoring system on trucks instead of traditional rear-view mirrors in the United States. And also on buses and motorcoaches.
The exemption does not only apply to mirrors for trucks, but also to mirrors on multipurpose passenger vehicles and each bus, other than a school bus, with a gross vehicle weight rating of more than 4,536 kilograms. The exemption applies exclusively to the Orlaco MirrorEye system, making it the only camera-monitoring system in the aftermarket that allows for complete removal of traditional mirrors in the United States.
The primary mission of the FMCSA is to prevent commercial motor vehicle-related fatalities and injuries. MirrorEye has proven to meet and exceed the visibility requirements of conventional mirrors by providing the following enhanced vision benefits: greater field of view and elimination of common blind spots — three views greatly expand the driver’s field of view and eliminate blind spots. The enhanced vision quality — high-definition digital cameras provide color night vision, low light sensitivity and glare reduction.
In addition to the marked safety benefits, the MirrorEye camera-monitoring system also enables improved fuel economy via the aerodynamic design of the exterior camera arms. Third-party and real-world testing have shown that MirrorEye equipped vehicles can expect up to 2.5 percent fuel economy improvements.
This release originally appeared on the Busworld website. You can view it here.