When the CyberTruck was unveiled for the first time in 2019 it had these cameras which doubled as side-view mirrors. But at the time many believed that the regulators aren’t going to allow Tesla to pull off this stunt. So more recently, the car was indeed seen with mirrors. But these mirrors ruin the seamless symmetry and the cyberpunk futurism of the car. Now, in a tweet, Elon Musk has revealed that the mirror is required by the law but they have been designed in such a way that they can be removed easily by the owners.
The side-view mirrors are a requirement of the US Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standard referred to as Rear Visibility. The side mirrors assure that the driver has a good view of obstacles around the sides and the rear of the truck.
Tesla strived to remove the mirrors altogether as modern cars also come with blindspot detection cameras as well as rearview cameras which help in reversing. Tesla has always future-proofed its cars with advanced hardware and constant software updates and if and when the regulation is changed Tesla has added the ability for its owners to remove the mirror as the cameras are already baked in.
Tesla’s vehicles also come with advanced autonomous capability and the Cybertruck will be the first car it releases that will come with a new generation of self-driving chips and cameras. In other words, these cars by the time they come out in 2022 will have the latest hardware and software and an old-school solution like side-view mirrors will be hugely redundant.