Backup cameras! Where would we be without them? Probably in the same place we are now, but less well aligned with the stripes in the parking lot (for you back-inners), and with more dings in our bumpers and/or grilles, probably. We’d also have a lot more pedestrians getting backed into, which is surely a bigger deal – especially if you’re a pedestrian.
The first production car equipped with a backup camera arrived in 1987 with the Toyota Crown, and the first car sold with the tech in America was the 2002 Infiniti Q45. [Editor’s Note: Buick had a concept car from 1956 called the Centurion that had one! Oh, and Volvo’s 1972 safety car had one. And the Isuzu VehiCross was also an early adopter. – JT]
Backup cameras grew more common every year thereafter, and in 2018 were mandated as required equipment in all cars sold in America. In 1996, Toyota offered a different spin on better backing-up visibility with a mirror system on the Hilux Surf (4Runner, stateside) sold in Japan that simultaneously offered pragmatic simplicity and joyously unnecessary complexity.
Meet The Power Rear Under Mirror
Though it does sound very much like a Pee-Wee Herman invention, the Power Rear Under Mirror (PRUM, which does not seem to be an acronym Toyota ever endorsed, sadly) is a very smart accessory for an SUV and, as executed by Toyota, extremely cool in action. Watch:
Neat, right? Here’s another look:
If you watched with the sound on, you heard the voice in the second clip (which is not David Tracy, by the way) say that the PRUM was meant to mitigate “SUV’s [being] hard to see out of.” And while that may be true for some SUVs, that was definitely not the problem the PRUM was created to solve. Indeed, whatever SUV earns the awards for “Best Outward Visibility” cannot possibly deliver the view one gets from the PRUM. Nor is the PRUM “a 1990s version of a backup camera,” except in perhaps the broadest sense of looking toward the rear of the car.
OK, So What’s It Really For?
To better appreciate what the PRUM was powerizing, let’s take a look at a static, unpowered version of the same concept:
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Now that makes it a lot easier to see what the PRUM is up to. By adding a second mirror to the rear of the car at 45 degrees (give or take, it’s quite a wide-angle mirror), you get a straight-down view of the rear bumper when the secondary mirror is viewed through the primary, windshield-mounted rearview mirror.
This view allows you to snug right up to the back of your garage or another parked car or – and this is what I suspect Toyota was really thinking of – you can get your trailer hitch right up to your trailer for easy connection.
With the PRUM, the Hilux Surf gave you all the benefits of that goofy-looking schoolbus mirror without having a goofy-looking schoolbus mirror cramping your style 24-7. And as we all know, motorized stuff that pops up and/or out is always exceptionally cool.
Today’s backup cameras (not to mention the other cameras cars are festooned with these days) allow far greater visibility and functionality than the PRUM offered, but are they as cool as a chunk of spoiler deploying from the back of your SUV at the touch of a button?
Pffft, it’s not even close. PRUM for the win.
Top graphic images: BuySellJDM.com
I love those goofy schoolbus mirrors. Equally loveable and goofy, and serving a similar purpose, are the goofy school bus mirrors on the front of the hood, which allow visibility of the front bumper. I’m still thinking about installing one on my van.
Impressive, but I feel like for the time, for the cost/complexity they could have actually added in a little dash cam. I bought a fairly cheap JVC VHS-C camcorder back in 1998, maybe like $300 tops, I was young and not making alot so can’t imagine it cost much more, it had a video display so you could watch the video back, this was only a couple years before, and doesn’t even need the recording part, just the camera and the display. Especially for the Japanese not to put actual technology in instead of this is kinda confusing.
Let’s daisy chain a couple of third mirrors – so we can look forward along the sides from the rear bumper.
Years ago, I went to South Korea. Maybe 15 years ago? I had imagined a country of tiny cars, but it ended up being SUVs, a lot of Sorentos. Every car had a mirror on the back like this to do exactly what you talked about. Traffic around Seoul was… interesting. Even at 2 AM it was like NYC levels of packed.
Reminds me of the mirrors used to view the standby compass in a DC9.
https://youtu.be/TzNon7_Kg2A?t=73
We had a ’99 Pontiac Montana that had a simple solution: a bumper sensor + a series of three lights at the rear (inside) portion of the tailgate. In reverse, the first light would turn on. As you got nearer, the second and (eventually) third light would turn on. You could even disable the beeping sound! It was an incredibly simple safety system that really should’ve bridged the gap between “nothing” and “mandatory reverse cameras”.
I had a 2004 Cadillac SRX with the same setup! Very handy.
Mechanical solutions are always more interesting than electrical ones. Not always better but always more fascinating, haha!
Can we also talk about the disappearance of rear wings/deflectors designed to keep the glass clean? At least, I think that was the idea — I assume the tradeoff for slightly worse aero just wasn’t worth it, but it’s something I always think of when I see this generation of 4Runner. The movable mirror just takes the existing device to the next level!
Especially as rear windows have gotten narrower and narrower, causing rear wipers to shrink. My rear wiper covers maybe 40% of the back window, and it gets a ton of road spray.
I had to order my X3 rear wiper from LilliputTeile.de!
Kidding. I don’t use it. Windex and a single paper towel is much better.
Similar with modern Outback, though I switched to a non-ammonia based cleaner to better preserve the windows seals
The 45 degree backup mirror was super common on sub-1000cc micro-vans in Japan during the ’90’s. Even in in the northern prefectures parking could be tight. What a reliable, low-tech solution.
my 2005 4Runner has carnival-type mirrors mounted into the interior of the D pillars. It kinda helps, but the orientation is real challenging to figure out what I’m about to “not” hit
My mom’s 4Runner has those too. I agree they’re not precision tools but they’re good enough to let you know if you’re about to squash something hiding behind the car or not.
Never been an SUV fan, but 90’s 4Runner hangs near the top of my list of if I had to.
I’d rather have a rear mirror than a backup camera.
If I ever get another completely unaerodynamic automobile again I’m putting one on it.
Kookie Byrnes had an exotic custom in the 60s with a rear view video camera.
“Backup cameras grew more common every year thereafter, and in 2018 were mandated as required equipment in all cars sold in America.”
As usefully safety-ish as a rear mirror like this legitimately is, I’m surprised they weren’t mandated years before backup cameras. If they had already been in place in 1986, they might have made a convenient, stupid looking place to put a CHMSL.
The fourth generation 4runner had little mirrors above the interior side of the rear hatch if you didnt get the upgraded sound system. These worked to assist seeing the back of the bumper when going in reverse.
I like the idea of a more elegant rear mirror. I’ve driven a HiAce and that dorky looking mirror really does make it easier to park. I think some vans have a school bus style mirror for the front bumper too.
Those have been common in Asia for decades. I used to travel all over Asia for work and wondered how they could park so tight. Eventually I mentioned to the hotel driver and he pointed it out at the back of the van
Back in the day some people would put this square or rectangular piece of plastic film on the back window of VW buses or USDM vans that was like a Fresnel lens that supposedly enabled one to have a wide angle view that included the rear bumper or at least close to said bumper.
https://www.magnifier.com.tw/storage/system/soft-pvc-rear-window-lens-wide-angle-810.jpg
Haven’t seen one in years; they might have gone the way of the once ubiquitous J.C. Whitney catalogs…
These were a staple on my parents and grandparents conversion vans
I want that tire carrier so much
This makes me nostalgic for the days of airy greenhouses and drivers taking enough interest in their vehicles to focus on all parts of driving.
Saw 4Runner, got excited.
Saw swing-out tire carrier, recognized it was a Surf, got sad about an accessory I genuinely wish I had and can never get here in the US.
Saw article about weird Toyota mirrors and now am excited again.
That is exactly my thought. I love the color. And I’ve seen the 2nd gen tire carriers mounted to 1st gens, so now I’m on the hunt
My 90stastic Delica had one of those hanging (non-motorized) mirrors that is linked above. It was awesome, tbh great little feature that I used all the time, and find way more useful than a backup camera that inevitably gets schmutz on it the moment you actually take it on the road.
Yes – They were super common on JDM TownAces and such back in the early 90s.
Because parking in Japan is always in close quarters – and using your bumpers as feelers is simply not acceptable.
But for use w/ trailers? That’s Not a Thing in Japan.
Back when it first became an issue, I thought they should’ve made those mirrors mandatory for everything over 60″ tall with a back seat, and that looking dorky would be part of the point, an incentive to get a real car.
Agree with incentivizing smaller vehicles, but as visibility has gotten worse in everything it’s cars that have taken the harder hit. Crossovers have the advantage of the back window being the back of the vehicle, so at least if you’re backing up to something tall you know when the car ends (small hatchbacks being the best for this). The sedans I’ve driven recently have no view of the trunk. No idea where the car ends without the backup camera. It’s like they’ve leaned into the backup camera and don’t even worry about rearward visibility anymore.
Before back up cameras didn’t every manufacturer do it with mirrors? I currently own 3 cars none has the camera never hit anyone or anything. Perhaps not having these crutches would make people better drivers?
Mirrors and a lower beltline and larger rear windshield. More stringent crash and rollover safety requirements have basically reduced direct visibility enough that the camera’s a necessity for a lot of cars.
That and little kids. You can get better at object permanence and distance estimation for stuff that’s stationary, but little kids are small and mobile. The number of kids run over by reversing cars has dropped quite a bit since the camera mandate.