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Comment by m1n1 | Hacker News Reader

This, and the other comments that say turning your head is still necessary.

I tried what the link suggests and had many instances where a motorcycle zipped by close to my car -- I didn't notice them until [what would have been] too late because I couldn't see the area next to my car easily that way. Now I have my mirrors adjusted so I can see motorcycles better, and I turn my head to check the remainder.

All humans are legally blind in their peripheral vision just a few degrees off-axis, so I make sure to focus where I claim to be checking.

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I've got my mirrors set as the article describes. I've had motorcycles zip by right beside the car, splitting lanes. I saw them coming, and had them in complete view from when they entered the rearview mirror to the side mirror to out the side window.

I've measured the exact point at which an object leaves the field of vision of the side mirror, and I'm pretty sure it's slightly ahead of the driver side window, at which point glancing at the mirror will see them anyway. There's potentially a blind spot if a motorcyclist or bicyclist is on the far side of the lane next to you (not close to the car, but lined up with it), but as long as you change lanes slowly and don't just barrel across 4 lanes of traffic you'll see them long before you hit them.

True, but convex mirrors help a lot. I'm not sure do all cars have them, though...

Federal law prohibits them on the driver's side in the US[0].

[0] https://wheels.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/12/30/in-defense-of-co...

Clarification: federal law permits them on the drivers side in the US as long as the mirrors also have the required flat mirror [0].

[0] same link, and the fact that my vehicle came from the US manufacturer with both.

I have a 2017 Ford Fusion with a "blind spot mirror" (i.e. a small convex mirror in the corner of the flat mirror) and I have no idea why all cars don't have them. With the left and right mirrors adjusted to just barely see the edge of the car, I have no blind spots (assuming you are careful to check the small mirror separately from the main mirror.)

> All humans are legally blind in their peripheral vision just a few degrees off-axis,

This is a misleading summary. Humans can’t read text or distinguish fine textures in peripheral vision, but peripheral vision is very good at detecting moving objects (that’s arguably its main purpose).

I like to think of peripheral vision as “prey vision” – as in, “what would I need to know about my environment if I were a deer and a wolf might jump out at me from any side, and my main response should be to run away as soon as possible?”

> detecting moving objects

substantial movement relative to your position/trajectory.

Not to be rude, but yeah, what else would they mean? Is your peripheral good at picking up anything on the planet since it's always spinning? Everything is always moving relative to something else.

It's important to be explicitly clear in this case because objects traveling next to you in the road, which would be visible only in your peripheral vision, may be effectively stationary reflective to you. So you can't rely on your peripheral vision to notice them.

Ah yeah, got it.

Hello CBDR, brace for impact. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Constant_bearing,_decreasing_r...

Turning your head is not necessary. When you have side mirrors set up correctly you need to first look in the rear view mirror and only then in the side mirror.

The problem is, the "correct" way to set up your side mirrors involves adjusting them so that you can't see the side of your own car without craning your neck. This, in turn, means that your mirrors might not be where you left them. If someone bumps your mirror in a parking lot, you may not notice that you now have a sizable blind spot close to your car.

So I usually compromise by keeping a small sliver of the car visible in the mirrors and turning my head at least slightly when I use them. I think that's probably the way to optimize for real-world safety.

Another pet peeve is a feature my own car has, which is an auto-dimming function that's intended to cut down on glare from nearby headlights. If I turn that on, the side mirrors get so dark that I can't see cars that don't have their headlights on, which is all too common near dusk around here. Extremely dangerous implementation of an otherwise helpful feature. One of these days I'm going to open up the mirror housings and clip the appropriate wires, since I really only want the interior mirror to adjust itself.

You are partly correct. Every time I sit in my car I check the mirrors by moving my head to the left and to the right. It takes barely a second but it is the only way to assure mirrors are set correctly.

Let me share a story. I am blind to my left eye which means I have to turn my entire head way, way to the left to be able to look into "blind spot". Once I almost crashed the car when looking into "blind spot" when joining into busy highway because the car before me broke hard as some other care before run out of space. Only my wife screamed and I instinctively slammed the brakes and stopped few inches from the car before me.

This was about 10 years ago. I started reading about how to fix this problem and I found the article why and exact procedure.

It took some time to get adjusted. Particularly, driving with no traffic at the beginning meant there was nothing in the side mirrors which was disconcerting. Also, when you back up with your car you have to tilt to be able to see the side of your car. But, remember, you can back up as slowly as you want but when you need to join moving traffic you have to do it at speed.

Nevertheless, I finally feel free in my car. I know exactly what is happening around me just by scanning the mirrors with very little head movement and on the lanes directly to the left and to the right I have no blind spot where a cyclist could fit. There are blind spots on further lanes so if I change lane I still need to make sure there is no car that decided, at the same instant, to also change his lane.

If you sit straight and you see the sides of your car even a tiny bit then your mirrors are way from being well set up. It is not a compromise, you have a huge blind spot unless you have particularly large side mirrors. Thats because your rear view mirror is a cone, and the job of your side mirror is point exactly in the middle between your peripheral vision and the cone shown by rear view mirror. If your side mirror sees the side of your car then over half of your rear view mirror is duplicated with your side mirror. If both side mirrors are set this way then you don't really need the rear view mirror as in both side mirrors you see the road behind your car.

Again, how do you know your mirrors are where you left them?

You will not always drive cars with perfectly adjusted (or adjustable) mirrors. The responsible thing to do (if you can) is to turn around.

For me this is mostly about the extra time it keeps me from making a stupid deadly mistakes. Switching lanes that way takes longer, and this is a feature not a bug.

The responsible thing is to adjust your mirrors to be able yo drive safely. Where I live (EU) all new cars are required to have adjustable mirrors and have been for a very long time. I would expect the same for US.

This method requires you to also lean into the mirror to see more towards the side of the car.

It is ridiculous, because the side mirrors should give you a far away view, and then you look to the side to make sure that closeby there is nothing either. You only have to turn your head.

Now this method in the article would make you lean into mirror to get behind you, then you go back to normal position and look in the mirror, then you look to the side. Someone thinks they have found a hack to mirrors and driving, but they are just making it more dangerous especially by spreading this new interesting way.

The message still stands that a lot of drivers could have avoided hitting someone if they had used their mirrors and looked to the side. Accidents however often happen because of distraction causing a driver not to do what they normally would do.

> This method requires you to also lean into the mirror to see more towards the side of the car.

You don't need to move your head at all to see a car at any point while it is coming up behind you and passing you: that's the whole point of adjusting your mirrors the way the article describes.

As the article notes, you should still turn your head before making a maneuver like changing lanes. But because your mirrors are giving you more coverage, the head turning doesn't need to be as extreme.

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.

Disagree, see my reply to your parent.

> You don't need to move your head at all to see a car...

But what I'm saying is the article's suggestion doesn't allow me to see something smaller like a motorcycle with the mirrors, and either I'd have to turn my head even further to see it with the mirrors in suggested position to check that area or -- worse yet -- I can't physically see that spot without the aid of a mirror.

> the article's suggestion doesn't allow me to see something smaller like a motorcycle with the mirrors

In other words, you now have some amount of "blind spot" for motorcycles--but only motorcycles. Whereas, with the mirrors adjusted further in, you still have some blind spot for motorcycles--though perhaps less than with them adjusted further out--but you also now have a blind spot for cars, which you don't have with the mirrors adjusted further out. And cars are much more common than motorcycles, so adjusting the mirrors further out is a net gain in how many vehicles you can see with the mirrors.

An even better solution is cameras like the ones that some higher end vehicles now have for changing lanes. In the ones I've seen, when you turn on your turn signal, your vehicle's screen (the one that shows the backup camera image when you're in reverse) shows a view of everything on that side of your vehicle. No blind spot for anything. Eventually I'm hoping this will become mainstream (the way backup cameras are getting to be).

You can turn your head and check the blind spot on your side. You can’t turn your head and check the motorcycle blind spot at the back. A large checkable blind spot (which you always check) is far preferable to a small uncheckable blind spot.

At least on my car (09 Honda Fit), there isn't one of those. A motorcycle coming from the back enters the side mirror field of view before it leaves the rear mirror field of view.

I have my mirrors set as TFA describes. I dislike the surprise of having a clear view in the mirror and then noticing a vehicle is actually next to you but behind the cutoff of peripheral vision.

That said, I still turn my head and check before changing lanes. Belt and suspenders.

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