American drivers are simply too stupid to be able to comprehend curved mirrors, so the US government bans them on US-spec cars, and instead you get flat mirrors with a warning message.
In the United States, regulations dictate that cars coming off of the assembly line must have a flat mirror on the driver's side. Curved mirrors are allowed for cars' passenger-side mirrors only if they include the phrase "Objects in mirror are closer than they appear."
Because of these regulations, Hicks's mirrors will not be installed on new cars sold in the U.S. any time soon. The mirror may be manufactured and sold as an aftermarket product that drivers and mechanics can install on cars after purchase. Some countries in Europe and Asia do allow slightly curved mirrors on new cars. Hicks has received interest from investors and manufacturers who may pursue opportunities to license and produce the mirror.
Not sure why this is news. They've existed in Europe for over a decade. i've had them on my VW Golf almost since I bought it (Mirrors: http://www.ecstuning.com/Volkswagen-Golf_VI--TDI/Exterior/Mi...) they're convex, and variable radius. They're great. MUCH better than the "Car and Driver" technique.
The problem is, as usual, regulator - DOT requires carmakers to sell new cars with a flat drivers side mirror.
Exactly; I should have been more specific: EU mirrors are aspherical, so the curvature isn't consistent. The US government believes, rightly or wrongly, that American drivers are simply too stupid to properly comprehend the view from an aspherical mirror, so therefore they are banned in the US.
The EU mirrors aren't curved consistently; they curve more towards the outer end (IIRC), to eliminate the blind spot and show more. Apparently this is too much for the brain of an American driver to comprehend. If you disagree with this, you'll have to take it up with the federal government, because this is their opinion.
> They already won't allow aspheric side mirrors because those "confuse" drivers (even though cars in Europe have them).
It is so nice to not have a blindspot larger than half a car. That leaves all attention for bikes and bicycles.
I've never had a rental car in the US which did not have a blindspot the size of a small car.
That links also mentions that his amazing 45 deg. FOV side-view mirror is banned in the US, because curved mirrors are illegal in the US. What the hell? Doesn't congress have anything better to do than shoot us all in the foot, repeatedly?
Exactly. The article doesn't state it quite so clearly, but any mirror showing space that can't be occupied by another vehicle is wasted mirror. Turn them out further.
Curved mirrors are more efficient in one sense but tends to lead people to misjudge distances. Presumably the government think that showing a misleading picture may be worse than not showing one at all, which is not complete idiocy. This mirror apparently doesn't really suffer from that problem, but the legislation didn't anticipate it - which isn't really surprising, it's hardly realistic to expect them to foresee this development.
I'm waiting for someone to propose pointing cameras in all directions and replacing the windshield and windows with screens. It'd let them cut the amount of glass in the vehicle down dramatically, which could have both cost and safety benefits. And it would enable them to remove longstanding visibility issues like blind spots caused by structurally necessary pillars; if the view outside is synthetic, no reason why it couldn't be synthesized in such a way as to provide complete 360-degree visibility.
(Of course, the fight to prove that a car which is essentially a closed container is safe to operate would make the fight to just remove the side mirrors look like a schoolyard scrap.)
> Here in Poland it is illegal to drive your car with the vision from the rear view mirror obstructed. That only makes sense if the side mirrors are not supposed to cover same angles as rear view mirror.
It's physically impossible for your side mirrors to show exactly what your rear view mirror does (since there's a whole car in the way...), so no matter how your side mirrors are adjusted, your rear view mirror is serving a function and shouldn't be obscured.
And the mirrors work the opposite of how you think:
If you point your side mirror so they show you the side of your car, they will show you an overlapping view of what your rear view mirror does on top of significantly reducing what you see on either side of your car: https://www.team-bhp.com/forum/attachments/road-safety/14154...
In the EU the driver's side mirror is allowed to be convex which is all the more reason to not waste a large portion of the view on looking at the side of your car. There should be just barely any of your car visible in your driver side mirror
> your side mirrors should be pointed at the lanes next to you
Ironically, this gets harder and harder in some newer cars. My driver's side mirror reaches its limit precisely as my car (a 2018 Outback) side disappears from the view. It's unfortunate how much flexibility we've lost with these mirrors.
https://wheels.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/12/30/in-defense-of-co...
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