A view into the future

Detroit — Driving instructors may need to retire safety tips requiring drivers to check their sideview mirrors if three concept cars are an example of what is to come.

The "vehicles of tomorrow," which debuted Jan. 15 at the North American International Auto Show, replaced bulky sideview mirrors with sleek side cameras.

Lexus, the luxury division of Japanese automaker Toyota Motor Corp., used cameras in place of mirrors to avoid a disruption in the exterior design flow on the Lexus LF-1 Limitless concept, the company said.

The concept crossover was created at Calty Design Research Inc., Toyota's design studio in Newport Beach, Calif.

"It's a little weird seeing cars without mirrors just because we're so used to seeing these things sticking out," Kevin Hunter, president of Calty Design Research, said in an interview on the show floor. "But the more and more I've been seeing cars and we've been doing these camera systems, I've already gotten used to the idea of the cleaner body design without that mirror.

"Mirrors are really an old idea, ​ and I love the possibilities that cameras open up for us," Hunter added. "You can put them anywhere."

There are two monitors in a driver's scope of view that display high-definition images in a wide-view angle, as well as blind spots to help during lane changes, parking or reversing, Yoshihiro Sawa, president of Lexus International, said during the news conference.

Nissan Motor Co. Ltd.'s Xmotion — pronounced "cross motion" — compact SUV concept and luxury division Infiniti's Q Inspiration also used side cameras in place of mirrors.

"At a glance, Xmotion may appear to have a minimal design language, but a closer look reveals layers of detail that make this concept exceptional," Alfonso Albaisa, Nissan's senior vice president of global design, said in a news release.

On Infiniti's midsize sedan concept, Hirohisa Ono, director of Infiniti Design in San Diego, said replacing mirrors with cameras also improves safety and adds to the overall driving experience.

"[The side camera] is very small, so the visibility [for the driver] is quite wider, which is safer," Ono said in an interview on the show floor.

He added that the automaker is interested in adapting the side cameras for production vehicles.

Paul Spadafora, Magna Exteriors' global vice president of product development, said the automotive supplier's closures division has been working on replacing mirrors with cameras for a "long, long time."

"Mirrors, in general, take a lot of drag from the vehicle," he said in a Jan. 16 interview in Detroit. "If we're able to delete the mirrors and put some very strategic cameras in there, we're able to increase accuracy because we can see farther than just what that little mirror shows us, and we're able to significantly reduce drag on the vehicle."

Spadafora said the camera trend could ultimately be applied to all vehicles — not just concepts debuting at the Detroit auto show — because it will improve fuel economy.

News Editor Rhoda Miel and Assistant Managing Editor/Video Editor Jeremy Carroll contributed to this report.