
Land Rover's new wheels-eye-view feature - tpc3
https://spectrum.ieee.org/cars-that-think/transportation/advanced-cars/like-magic-land-rover-makes-its-suvs-hood-disappear
======
whenchamenia
Cool tech. A natural extension of the 360 view many luxury cars offer. I must
however protest that I miss low hoodlines and narrow a-pillars that seem to
rob half the view of the road in newer cars. I am convinced the huge wheel
trend is just to visually offset the highwater beltlines endemic on modern
cars. The back-up camera, blind-spot camera, and offroad cameras seem like
nothing more than band-aids slapped over bad design. Its all down to (some)
asinine regulations forcing cars to be the same. Which is why so few cars are
made today. All sales are trucks, suv's, or 'crossovers' today, simply to
dodge the regulations. Which helps nobody but fords f150 plant and oil
companies.

Meanwhile in the actual consumer world; How easy are the lenses to access and
clean? How cheap to replace when offroading? Seems like a good feature to
check out on a leased british car. Even LR's biggest fans still bemoan parts
prices, and availability after a few years. British electronics have come a
long way but still suffer under the cursed memory of Lucas made wiring in wet
climates.

~~~
dsfyu404ed
Yes, modern cars suck from a visibility perspective but that's what you get
after a 30yr (and counting) of manufacturers competing in safety arms race.
The belt-line got higher and the pillars got bigger so you could barrel roll
down the median in comfort. People want to be safer in a highly unlikely event
serious crash at the expense of greatly increasing the likelihood of a less
severe crash from lack of visibility (e.g. cornering over a cyclist).
Everything has trade-offs and the consumers (and the regulatory agencies) have
signaled which trade-offs they prefer.

~~~
tomatotomato37
The worst part of this arms race is how much its caused by regulations,
especially when those regulations end up completely working against
environmental/mpg regulations that end up forcing automakers to pick some crap
median that ends up pissing both sides off. You're not going to get good gas
mileage with 2 extra tons of airbags, superfluous pillar reinforcements, and
an massive SUV hood needed to satisfy pedestrian requirements

~~~
wil421
Who cars about MPGs? I would much rather drive a safe car than an efficient
car. It’s the same reason all that crap is removed for race cars. Extra weight
and lower MPGs are a small price to pay for safety.

ICEs will hopefully lose their dominance in the next 15-20 years. Fully
electric cars could have some crazy looking designs but I doubt they will.

~~~
0db532a0
[https://tanks-alot.co.uk](https://tanks-alot.co.uk) have a few tanks for sale
right now. Take your pick.

~~~
wil421
Great, now I’m debating quitting my day job and starting a tank rental
business in the US.

Edit: There’s a Tank Town USA amusement park someone not even 1.5 hours away
from me. I can even pay extra to shoot a machine gun from one.

------
laythea
It is very cool tech and will be very useful in parking the new range rover in
the supermarket car park.

------
soared
I was under the impression that land rover was purely a luxury car - I live in
Colorado and I've never seen one on a trail. Does anyone actually use these
for off-roading?

I'm curious because this feature may fit that idea. Excellent marketing for
people who want a land rover but will never use the feature.

~~~
ihaveajob
In much of rural Spain, the Land Rover has been the car of choice for farmers
and goat herders, for decades. Not the fancy version you usually see in the
US, but the "Santana Cazorla" which was a much more bare bones one produced in
Linares, at the heart of olive oil country.
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Santana_Motor](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Santana_Motor)

~~~
wil421
Those cars look 30 years old or more! No one is commenting on the absolute off
road tanks Land Rover used to build. The new cars are purely luxury cars for
rich people, as evident of Land Rover killing off the real off road LR models.

~~~
arprocter
The original Land Rover was launched in the 40s

~~~
wil421
Yes I know. Same as Jeep. Those are refereed to as the Land Rover "Series"
models.

I see why I am confused about Discovery. They were marketed as the LR3/4 since
2004 in North America and called Discovery everywhere else.

------
duxup
That ultra clean Land Rover in the surreal photo driving through the green
muck makes me question any of the discussion about going off road.

~~~
tw04
Yes and no. While it's great in movies, barreling into water like that is a
great way to hydrolock an ICE. Plus that thing was clearly freshly waxed for
the shoot, water be running right off.

------
wil421
Cool tech. I cringe at the sight of a car that expensive being taken off road.
Especially with crappy tires meant for the street only.

Really upset the Discovery is taking over the LR4’s spot. To me the LR was the
one real off road machine. Something you could take anywhere from African
safaris to mountains. I wanted to get an LR but the reliability and running
costs were terrible.

~~~
decasteve
I'm still running a 2001 Land Rover Discovery II. The reliability is a minor
issue. Every quirk is documented and fixable (except gas milage).

------
FatalLogic
Does the photograph show the system that is described?

The system has 'forward-facing cameras mounted on the side mirrors and front
grille'.

But the second photograph seems to show what is underneath the car, which is
not a view that's possible from those cameras at that moment in time. There's
no shadow, either. Is it possible to achieve this just by delaying the image
feed?

edited

~~~
netsharc
[https://youtube.com/watch?v=o7V5COxB48Q](https://youtube.com/watch?v=o7V5COxB48Q)
here's a demo, from 4:53 onwards. Yeah it's delayed, so if e.g. a cat moves
after it is out of sight of the camera, the picture won't display the actual
position of said cat.

~~~
FatalLogic
That's useful, but like other people said, it could be misleading. If the
front wheel sinks into soft ground when you're off road, the display can't
show you that, then you could high center the vehicle and get stuck

Or you could drive over your cat

~~~
burfog
I wonder if a pair of cameras under the center of the vehicle would meet the
requirement for a rear-view camera. That'd be superior, because seeing right
next to the wheels is actually useful. For viewing higher, we have windows and
mirrors.

------
growlist
Now that the Defender has been discontinued I'm looking forward to this:
[https://projektgrenadier.com/](https://projektgrenadier.com/)

Plenty of people don't consider anything other than a Defender to be a proper
Land Rover, so I thought it might be of interest (not connected with them).

~~~
wil421
It looks like the Defender is coming back.[1]

[1][https://www.landroverusa.com/future-
vehicles/defender/index....](https://www.landroverusa.com/future-
vehicles/defender/index.html)

------
Aardwolf
But now you'd need to find a way to look at this screen and what's happening
in front of you at the same time!

------
ActorNightly
Anybody know of or have experience with aftermarket systems that can do this
sort of image composition?

------
giarc
Between the press article and the Landrover link I have seen 2 images of this
system. I feel like something of this nature lends itself to a gallery of
images - I'd like to see more!

------
floatingatoll
Having this for a normal car would in many respects give me the one thing I’ve
always dreamed of having an Ariel Atom for: the ability to see my tires.

------
theandrewbailey
In an all electric car, is there even a need for such a pronounced hood as for
an ICE-based car? That's probably the best solution.

------
stunt
Non of it matters if car prices are still high.

