Rearview camera washer - needed?

[Jhodgesatmb]

I watched one of the review videos and it showed the rearview view and it wasn't clear at all. I can easily imagine the rearview camera getting smudged a lot (my Model Y rearview camera gets quite dirty on road trips for example), but with the Cybertruck this is the only rear view when the tonneaux is closed. I have seen the front bumper camera washer in action, but is there a sister washer on the rearview camera? If not, has anyone heard of plans to have one there?

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[JWass]

Nothing right now. But I wouldn’t be surprised if they install one before too long. They make updates all the time if they are worthwhile. I imagine this will be requested a lot from the early adopters.

 

[REM]

This has also been a big concern of mine. I bet they end up putting a washer on it at some point.

 

[Rishathra]

With amount of Snow and dirt covering my rear camera on my Model Y it makes it unusable after about an hour of driving down the 15 in the latest storm near Salt Lake through Utah

 

[Wraven]

Think about this from an engineering perspective.

The front camera is in a reasonable proximity to the water bottle washer fluid and the line run is reasonable short and unobstructed.

The rear tailgate camera would be an unreasonable length of run from the water bottle fluid at the front of the vehcile to source a liquid to spray beyond the challenges of a run that long in regards to clogging, kinking, leaking etc.

Then we need to think of a rear water bottle solution, pump, controller, piping, wiring, sensors. Ontop of finding space to house such a thing and then you are adding to the BOM (bill of materials) which makes the truck cost even more.

I'm not saying it wont happen, I'm just highlighting there is levels of complexity here that Tesla tends to avoid, not embrace.

 

[Rishathra]

Think about this from an engineering perspective.

The front camera is in a reasonable proximity to the water bottle washer fluid and the line run is reasonable short and unobstructed.

The rear tailgate camera would be an unreasonable length of run from the water bottle fluid at the front of the vehcile to source a liquid to spray beyond the challenges of a run that long in regards to clogging, kinking, leaking etc.

Then we need to think of a rear water bottle solution, pump, controller, piping, wiring, sensors. Ontop of finding space to house such a thing and then you are adding to the BOM (bill of materials) which makes the truck cost even more.

I'm not saying it wont happen, I'm just highlighting there is levels of complexity here that Tesla tends to avoid, not embrace.

Since they changed to ethernet putting a pump, additional reservoir in the rear fendor, tailgate or other location in the back of the vehicle would not be out of the question, but since my little Kia as well as a lot of other vehicles have them, I don't see much of a problem. It would not be reinventing the wheel, it's been done before, a lot.

 

[Jhodgesatmb]

Think about this from an engineering perspective.

The front camera is in a reasonable proximity to the water bottle washer fluid and the line run is reasonable short and unobstructed.

The rear tailgate camera would be an unreasonable length of run from the water bottle fluid at the front of the vehcile to source a liquid to spray beyond the challenges of a run that long in regards to clogging, kinking, leaking etc.

Then we need to think of a rear water bottle solution, pump, controller, piping, wiring, sensors. Ontop of finding space to house such a thing and then you are adding to the BOM (bill of materials) which makes the truck cost even more.

I'm not saying it wont happen, I'm just highlighting there is levels of complexity here that Tesla tends to avoid, not embrace.

Understood, but Tesla is also into safety and not having any real rearview view would violate that and trumps complexity. As much as I hate to say it, I think that it was a mistake to have the rearview camera on the tailgate. They could leave that camera there for backing up, but have another camera at the apex above the tonneau which would be much more protected from the elements (and closer to the spray bottle if they decided to have a washer). Not only that, but a camera in that location would give an excellent rear view (IMO).

 

[Rishathra]

I agree, having it up higher on the cab would have been much better for a few reasons, but I learned from my model Y, when hooking up a trailer by yourself, having one low at the rear where you can see your trailer hitch is indispensable.

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