I truly don’t understand how in 2023 with all the digitalization we have cars with backup cameras from at best a 2015 mid range smartphone. What’s preventing a manufacturer like bmw for an example from putting a high end sony sensor like the one on the iPhone 15 into their camera modules?
Cars are designed way before they are produced, years. Whatever is in a 2023 car was picked out several years ago. You say “cameras from at best a 2015 mid range smart phone”, and, well, that’s more accurate than you know. That’s about when the current models started being designed, parts for it sourced out, yada yada yada.
Additionally, cars are not updated yearly like phones are. An automaker might update the camera systems every 3-4 years (at the earliest), and the actual part is chosen/designed 1-2 years before the car is released to the public.
Yep this is right. And it stacks even further: they sell the same model for years.
So, think of a person with a 3-year-old car. That’s pretty new. But maybe that model launched 5 years before that, and it was designed ~3 years before launch! (The average age of cars on the road today is 12.5 years).
So your “new” car was actually designed maybe 11 years ago, aka 2012~2013! That’s like when smartphone cameras were just starting to get very good.
Of course, this isn’t always the case. But unless you’re regularly driving different new cars, it’s easy to lose perspective on how old the hardware actually is.
This is the real answer. The top comments with 20x the upvotes are literally just jokes about social media sentiment with 0 actual truth to them. Always a wake up call to see reddit talk about something you are actually knowledgeable about. Good reminder how much this website is just bullshit, sentiment, and conjecture.
I work in the industry. It’s non-trivial effort involving hardware and firmware engineers. Apple and Google employ thousands of the most highly paid engineers in the world in order to make a new phone every year. Automotive companies are barely keeping up with version control, let alone the latest and greatest camera hardware. Some companies are better than others of course and luxury brand will be more willing to invest in technology.
Another point I don’t see mentioned yet this high up the comment section: It’s a safety feature, therefore it’s likely regulated. Your iPhone is a retail consumer good and does not need to meet the same regulator requirements. QA and certification is a big deal depending on the use case or your hardware/firmware. I’ve worked on projects that were stuck in the certification whirlpool for years.