Could You Live Without a Rear Window?

[Glassman]

Passed a Polestar the other day and saw that it doesn't have a rear windscreen. The view of the rear obviously provided by a camera. Could this catch on?

I've been driving an un-glazed van for years and well, no issues whatsoever. No rear window? No problem (as long as I have my side mirrors). When reversing, the park sensors help. My van also has a reverse camera which also helps when parking especially when gauging leaving enough space to open the tailgate, but overall, I don't need a back window (looking at some owner-driver multi-drop couriers with the car brimming with parcels, neither do they, nor side windows!).

[Hedgedhog]

No.

[zsdom]

I get frustrated not having a rear wiper let alone a rear window

[king arthur]

Having driven LWB vans I know you can quite happily get by just fine without one as long as your side mirrors are big enough but maybe I would miss it in a car. I like to see just what kind of bellend is trying to climb into my boot!

[Keep it stiff]

We have had minimalist rear windows for decades, for example the Europa.

[richs2891]

I can see the trend catching on, as already stated we have had poor rear visability for decades.
Add in the makers tryign to make all cars as cost effective to build, I guess a sheet of metal instead of a sheet of glass is cheaper as well, add in the cost of rear wiper, wiring for rear heated screen etc.
Wiring for a rear camera will be less costly.
Do many people actaully look out the rear window when reversing or just look at the screen that the camera projects to ?
Side mirrors are perfectly fine for reversing - add in parking sensors and or camera and its easy.
Maybe miss the light they let in ?

Edited by richs2891 on Sunday 8th December 09:57

Edited by richs2891 on Sunday 8th December 09:57

[james6546]

Our pickup has 3 layers of glass you have to see through to see out of the back window, 2 of them tinted.

You get used to not using it, though the massive wing mirrors and decent reversing camera help.

[Nomme de Plum]

Yes of course one can live without a rear window.

Never had one on my Renault master van or Euromobile RV, neither had reversing cameras either.

Going forward I'd like to see door mirrors replaced with cameras so the screen can show left right and rear view all in one place and much easier to concentrate on the road ahead.

[Bluevanman]

I reckon if you drove an unglazed van that didn't have reversing sensors or a camera you'd have a different opinion but yes if your vehicle has those then having no window shouldn't be an issue.
The rear screen demister on my car is so st I can't see out of it anyway lol

[kambites]

You can't really look directly out of the rear window of my car because it's too high up and I suspect a screen and camera would be far more effective than the current reflective one looking through a letter box so yes, I could happily live without a rear window. I think the biggest issue would be making sure that enough light makes it into the rear seating area without one.

[blueg33]

Nomme de Plum said:

Yes of course one can live without a rear window.

Never had one on my Renault master van or Euromobile RV, neither had reversing cameras either.

Going forward I'd like to see door mirrors replaced with cameras so the screen can show left right and rear view all in one place and much easier to concentrate on the road ahead.

Cameras instead of door mirrors are in production. I’m not fan. You lose depth of field.

[Glassman]

Bluevanman said:

I reckon if you drove an unglazed van that didn't have reversing sensors or a camera you'd have a different opinion but yes if your vehicle has those then having no window shouldn't be an issue.
The rear screen demister on my car is so st I can't see out of it anyway lol

I was used to it before the assistance options came about. Had driven many vans with just the side mirrors to look at. When I specced my current van, I went for everything. It does make things easier, but I guess knowing they were available showed a need. I call it luxury.

[king arthur]

blueg33 said:

Nomme de Plum said:

Yes of course one can live without a rear window.

Never had one on my Renault master van or Euromobile RV, neither had reversing cameras either.

Going forward I'd like to see door mirrors replaced with cameras so the screen can show left right and rear view all in one place and much easier to concentrate on the road ahead.

Cameras instead of door mirrors are in production. I’m not fan. You lose depth of field.

Yep, you also lose the ability to move your head to get a different angle of view.

[Mike1990]

Another example of creating a solution to a problem that never existed in the first place.

[egomeister]

king arthur said:

blueg33 said:

Nomme de Plum said:

Yes of course one can live without a rear window.

Never had one on my Renault master van or Euromobile RV, neither had reversing cameras either.

Going forward I'd like to see door mirrors replaced with cameras so the screen can show left right and rear view all in one place and much easier to concentrate on the road ahead.

Cameras instead of door mirrors are in production. I’m not fan. You lose depth of field.

Yep, you also lose the ability to move your head to get a different angle of view.

Such is the nature of so many of the "improvements" we see now...superficially equivalent but actually eliminating a lot of the secondary cues humans use. See also the touchscreen obsession and the loss of tactility.

An augmented rear screen with a HUD to highlight risks would be cool though

[GG89]

I drive a MWB ford transit most of the time these days. No problem whatsoever.

[anonymous-user]

It's better to have one, but I'd live without one as well if it meant I could have more boot space in a smaller foot print.

Some MPV type car, 7 seater, 4500mm long with a shallow, double deck floor to ceiling rear boot area. Usually they need to be 4800mm-ish like the Ford Galaxy to offer usable boot space in 7 seater mode.

Edited by anonymous-user on Sunday 8th December 10:54

[Snow and Rocks]

james6546 said:

Our pickup has 3 layers of glass you have to see through to see out of the back window, 2 of them tinted.

You get used to not using it, though the massive wing mirrors and decent reversing camera help.

It's not an issue at all in a pickup or van with properly sized side mirrors but I suspect I would miss it in most cars that have tiny inadequate mirrors.

Camera based mirror systems are just another poor solution looking for a non existent problem.

[SkodaIan]

I'd happily manage without a rear window for slow speed manoeuvres like parking, where the visibility in most modern cars is so bad that you're fairly reliant on mirrors and sensors/cameras anyway.

However, not having a rear window when driving does make knowing what's going on around you harder work. Whether that's keeping track of a car/bike which is right up behind in traffic and drops out of view of the door mirrors, or maintaining the general view of what's going on behind on the motorway, it's just easier to be able to see directly behind the car as well as down the sides and further back.

[ucb]

The rear view camera in our Leaf is so badly positioned that it is largely unusable most of the time. If that isn't an issue for Polestar etc the I can live without the window