Why is the car reversing image mirrored left and right?

[Isabelle]

The reasons why the car reversing image is mirrored left and right are as follows: 1. The front and rear cameras are installed in reverse, that is, the front camera is mistakenly installed at the rear of the car. The main difference between the front-view camera and the rear-view camera lies in the mirroring of the image. If the rear-view camera is used as the front-view camera, the image on the display will be mirrored left and right. 2. The system's own settings issue. Re-engage the reverse gear, find the settings button in the navigation device under the reversing image mode, check if there is a mirror adjustment or reversing mirror function, and then click to turn it off.

[DeKate]

I found that many friends think it's a malfunction when they encounter the issue of the reversing camera displaying a mirrored image. Actually, this is intentionally designed by the manufacturer. The car camera works on the same imaging principle as a smartphone camera, which naturally captures a mirrored image. Engineers retained this effect to make our operations more intuitive—for example, when you turn the steering wheel to the left, the obstacle in the image also moves to the left. If it were adjusted to a normal view, it might confuse our operations instead. This design references the principle of rearview mirrors, which also show a mirrored image in daily use. I've been driving my car for five years, and after getting used to it, I find this mirrored image particularly helpful for judging the distance to the rear, especially at night when visibility is poor.

[FranciscoAnn]

This issue is actually quite intricate. The left-right reversal of the reverse camera image is a result of safety design. The camera is installed at the center of the rear bumper, so the captured image is naturally mirrored. Engineers intentionally don't correct this feature because when we turn the steering wheel, the movement direction of the car body and the image change direction are perfectly synchronized. Last time when I helped my neighbor move his car, his older vehicle had an aftermarket reverse camera showing the correct orientation, and we almost hit a wall while reversing – seeing the image move right made us instinctively turn right, but the rear of the car actually veered left. Modern vehicles retain the reversed display to make operations more intuitive.

[DiAlan]

I've studied reversing cameras, and the left-right reversed image stems from the laws of physical imaging. Just like looking in a mirror, the default image captured by the camera is a mirror image. All manufacturers adopt this standard design because when you see an obstacle on the left side of the image, you naturally steer left to avoid it. Changing to a normal perspective would actually cause confusion: imagine needing to steer left to avoid an obstacle appearing on the right side of the image, which goes against intuition. This design ensures reversing safety and becomes completely natural once you get used to it.