A vehicular exterior breakaway rearview mirror assembly includes a skull-cap mirror shell and a reflective element. With the mirror assembly mounted at an exterior side of a vehicle, the skull-cap mirror shell has an inboard wall that faces toward the exterior side of the vehicle. A blind spot indicator is disposed at an aperture established at the inboard wall of the skull-cap mirror shell. An illumination source of the blind spot indicator is activated to illuminate the blind spot indicator responsive to an electronic blind spot monitoring system of the vehicle detecting another vehicle that is approaching or overtaking the equipped vehicle. Illumination of the blind spot indicator by activation of the illumination source is readily viewable by the driver of the equipped vehicle and is not readily viewable by a driver of the detected other vehicle.

An article of manufacture for providing vehicle automatic wipers for side mirrors is disclosed. The automatic wipers includes a larger support structure coupled to an outside structure of the vehicle side mirrors on each side of the vehicle, a wiper arm coupled to the larger support structure being configured to orient the wiper arm in front of the vehicle side mirror, a wiper device coupled to the wiper arm being positioned to remain in contact with the side mirror of the vehicle when the wiper arm is in motion, a motor coupled within the larger support structure and being coupled to the wiper arm while being configured to move the wiper arm across the side mirror of the vehicle, and a control device communicatively coupled to the motor having a plurality of settings that activate and control the speed of the motor.

A vehicular vision system includes a camera module configured to be disposed at a vehicle. An image processor processes multiple frames of image data captured by the imager of the camera module. With the camera module disposed at the vehicle, the heating device is activated to heat a lens of the camera module responsive to determination of lens occlusion at the lens. Responsive at least in part to determination of lens occlusion at the lens, and via processing of frames of captured image data while the heating device is activated, the vehicular vision system determines a change in degree of lens occlusion occurring between capture of a previous frame of captured image data and capture of a current frame of captured image data. The heating device is deactivated responsive to determination that the change in degree of lens occlusion is less than a threshold amount.

A method for forming a reflective element for a vehicular interior rearview mirror assembly includes providing a roll of an ultrathin glass sheet, the ultrathin glass sheet having a thickness dimension of less than or equal to 0.8 mm and greater than or equal to 0.3 mm. An elongated sheet of transparent plastic material if formed. The elongated sheet has a planar first side and a planar second side opposite the planar first side and separated from the planar first side by a thickness of the elongated sheet. The ultrathin glass sheet is unrolled from the roll of the ultrathin glass sheet and the unrolled ultrathin glass sheet is applied to the first side of the elongated sheet. A reflective layer is applied to the second side of the elongated sheet.

A vehicular exterior rearview mirror assembly includes a mirror reflective element sub-assembly having a mirror reflective element, a mirror reflector, a mirror back plate, and indicator element. The indicator element includes a housing and a light source. The indicator element is associated with a blind spot detection system of the vehicle and includes a diffuser that diffuses light emitted by the light source. An icon is established through a metallic reflector coating disposed at the glass substrate. The icon includes a light-transmitting aperture. When the vehicular exterior rearview mirror assembly is attached at the vehicle, the icon is at an upper quadrant of the mirror reflective element. When the vehicular exterior rearview mirror assembly is attached at the vehicle and when the light source is activated, the icon is illuminated and is viewable by the driver of the vehicle.

Energy management techniques for heating or cooling a surface of a component of a vehicle comprise determining a heating lag time indicative of a lag time for a surface element of the vehicle component to heat to a first target temperature in response to a power on-off or power off-on modulation of a heat transfer component, determining a cooling lag time indicative of a lag time for the surface element to cool to a second target temperature in response to a power on-off or power off-on modulation of the heat transfer component, and controlling power-on and power-off times of the heat transfer component based on the determined heating and cooling lag times so as to not require a temperature sensor for feedback-based temperature control.

Wiper is utilized to clean side-view mirror of a vehicle. Existing wiper attached with the side-view mirror obstructs visibility of a driver while cleaning the side-view mirror in a rainy season or in a dusty environment, which leads to an accident. A vehicle mirror wiping unit is provided. The vehicle mirror wiping unit includes a mirror; a mirror shutter assembly; a mirror casing; a mirror mounting unit, consisting of: the mirror, a mirror spring, a spring retaining cap, and a mirror spring holder; a pin pass through a cut-out of the spring retaining cap, and a cut-out in the mirror spring holder; and a cleaning elastomer is triggered by the mirror shutter motor, and the mirror shutter moves from the first end of the mirror to the second end of the mirror. A frontal surface of the mirror shutter is a reflective surface functioning as a mirror.

An optical device comprises at least one printed circuit board, the printed circuit board includes an electronic image-capture circuit, a lens holder comprising at least one optical lens, the lens holder comprising a wall forming a cavity extending along the optical axis of the device from its top end to its bottom end, the bottom end being mounted on the rigid printed circuit board so as to align, along the optical axis of the device, the electronic image-capture circuit and the optical lens, a flexible heater band arranged in contact with the wall of the lens holder and around the wall of the lens holder, the heater band comprising an electrical connection interface electrically connected to at least one rigid printed circuit board of the optical device.

The present disclosure refers to an exterior rear view assembly for mounting to a vehicle (120) with a cowl (114), comprising: a base assembly adapted for attachment to the vehicle (120) independent of whether the vehicle (120) is provided with a vehicle door (110), wherein the base assembly is adapted for attachment to the cowl (114); and a head assembly (102) coupled to the base assembly. It also refers to a vehicle (120) with a cowl (114) and at least one such exterior rear view assembly (100).

Aspects of this disclosure relate to side-view mirror assemblies in vehicles and associated mirror controllers. A side-view mirror assembly may be configured with mirror tilt, power extend/retract, and power fold/unfold functionalities that may be electronically controllable via a mirror controller. The mirror controller may be interfaced with a tilt control switch and the side-view mirror assembly. The mirror controller may be configured to receive commands, via the mirror tilt control switch, and activate and/or deactivate the power extend/retract and power fold/unfold functionalities. Based on activation of the power extend/retract and power fold/unfold functionalities, the mirror tilt control switch may be used to cause extension, retraction, folding, and/or unfolding of a side-view mirror.