the maoster:
Never paid much attention to these tbh, but I notice from your pics a dirty great rear facing camera on the top corner. I’m assuming that this is to feed the internal display? Maybe I’m being picky here but at least on an overgrown country road you have a semi chance of a branch folding your standard mirrors in, but looking at that camera it seems equally as likely to get hit as a normal mirror but with 10x the expense to put right.Maybe I’m wrong, but it looks like tech for techs sake.
I believe the camera arm also folds in, far smaller object to hit in the first place, but yes possible. I have seen the cost of replacements it is more than a mirror arm but not 10X as much, however maybe with the things it’s able to do there could be more savings in less damage in other areas.
We’ve all got used to mirrors and perhaps have learned to accept or don’t think about their short comings, maybe driving these we will suddenly realise what an inadequate piece of kit mirrors are or maybe not, I’d like to try one for myself before I write it off as a gimmick.