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What if you have both?

yeah. The ideal approach is a flat mirror with a curved one inset either above or below. That way you beg both.

However it seems to me that there is a bit of basic math at work here. The more you fit into a mirror of the same size, the smaller the objects will appear and the further away they will look. That strikes me as a very basic premise and I don't think you can get away from that so easily.

I was thinking of having stacked mirrors, the way tractor trucks do. But your comment made me think: is there a way to have a flat mirror turn transparent, revealing a curved mirror behind it? You could activate the transparency just by using your turn signal.

Yeah, stacked is good.

Bigger vehicles such as buses often have a large flat mirror and a small half-globe shaped mirror attached to them. This provides proper distance and gives a nice wide view when you need it.

I would prefer cameras, but I am not sure if they are still not legal in the US.

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