I suspect that’s a bit of an exaggeration by the author. If the mirrors were not required by law and therefore comply with the law they wouldn’t exist. “The best part is no part”

All new cars are required to have backup cameras, so manufacturers have used that "freedom" to change car shapes. Not only Tesla.

I can’t understand why a regulatory group would feel the need to make that a requirement. That vastly increases the cost to develop a vehicle.

Why can’t I choose that feature as a consumer? Did their brother in law have the patent for backing cameras?

I get it, but the reasoning behind it was that little kids kept getting run over by their parents / family members because they couldn't see them.

The cost at this point is pretty negligible.

Mandate went into effect (in the US) in 2018: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Backup_camera#Mandates

Thanks for the info.

Yeah the cost is negligible if you are already planning to have a screen running chrome on Ubuntu server, but I hope it was still an option not to have that.

Uh no. Pretty much every single backup camera on every single vehicle is the exact same little module that produces analog video and literally just runs a component cable to the head unit which has a standardized analog video input.

Zero software required.

If that’s true I feel much more at peace.