Ficosa, a global provider devoted to the research, development, manufacturing and marketing of high-technology vision, safety, connectivity and efficiency systems for the automotive and mobility sectors, and Panasonichave announced an agreement with BMW to provide their co-developed interior rear-view mirror with electronic toll collection (ETC) 2.0 for the new X5 model in Japan.
The ETC 2.0 Interior rear-view mirror, which includes an improved built-in unit for automatic payment of motorway tolls, has been selected by the German manufacturer as standard equipment in Japan for its new BMW X5, which was released there on Feb. 27 of this year. This vision solution will be developed and produced between Japan (Panasonic) and Barcelona, Spain (Ficosa).
For this new product generation, which follows previous successful launch of co-developed electronic rear-view mirrors and telematics control units, Panasonic develops ETC wireless communication technology while Ficosa is in charge of the mirror technology. This solution, which integrates the ETC 2.0 module into the mirror, prevents the unit from obstructing the driver’s view and makes a fully inserted card to be difficult to be seen from outside thanks to its card slot located at the side of the mirror.
Intended for the Japanese market, this rearview mirror allows the driver to manage the payment of highway tolls due to the integration of an electronic toll system with credit card. In that sense, the mirror has a slot to insert the credit card and incorporates a small screen at the top that reports the amount to be paid. Mercedes Pujol, director of the Rearview Mirror Systems Business Unit at Ficosa, explains, “This additional functionality goes beyond the simple payment, as the mirror communicates with the toll station and is able to transmit this information to the navigation system of the vehicle, complementing the communication vehicle-infrastructure (V2I).”
Ficosa and Panasonic say they will continue to move forward with their collaborations to expand their line-up and sales of jointly developed products for OEMs.
