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Comment by kpsychwave | Hacker News Reader

Blind spot mirrors solve this issue, and they are very cheap. I am surprised they are not mandated by manufacturers.

The blind spot mirrors[1] are one of my favorite things about my 2012 Focus. They are a good size and significantly increase the my field of view. I definitely miss them when driving other cars.

It's a shame that manufacturers are going the route of digital blind-spot indicators when mirrors are simpler and more fool proof.

[1] https://www.quirkparts.com/oem-parts/ford-2012-2014-ford-foc...

I agree, except many times those blindspot mirrors are made WAY too small, of course I also think a number of cars just have too small of mirrors in the first place. They should be easily checkable with a glance, but those real tiny spot mirrors require significant focus to even tell what you are looking at.

They look ugly and people don't want them. It should be mandated by law, much like seatbelts IMO.

Current US legislation forces those blind spots by requiring the driver side mirror to not distort distances. Change that law to match the rest of the world, where the blind sports are much smaller: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wing_mirror#Planar.2C_convex.2... (and if you drive a car that has a EU-equivalent model, sometimes you can import EU mirrors. Best $100 I spent on my VW).

And while you're at it, also match the headlights with the ECE, such as to not blind oncoming traffic: https://web.archive.org/web/20170120092812/http://www.motive...

> And while you're at it, also match the headlights with the ECE

It's too bad that's not an option for most non-European makes. That is, if you have an Audi, BMW, Mercedes, Volkswagen, etc, they're relatively easy to obtain and install. If you have an Asian or American make (Honda, Ford, etc.), it's probably not an option since the overseas models may have a different shape for the headlamp assembly (making it difficult, if not impossible, to install them in the equivalent domestic model).

I don't want them because they shrink the primary mirror while being too small to use. Since they still reflect glare, they are actually worse than patches of duct tape.

It's especially weird that many cars opt for LEDs in the corner of the mirror that light up when blind-spot sensors detect a vehicle in the blind spot. Seems both less effective, more failure-prone, and more expensive than a simple blind spot mirror.

Likely because they've found the tech attractive to buyers compared to "hey, we have another mirror on this mirror" - and that they can pad their dealer network's income stream from the all-too-common side mirror repair/replacement.

But, yes. From a practical standpoint - it's utterly bizzare to me as well!

For me, the mirrors on my Golf make no sense. There is an amber blind spot warning light on the mirror. That I can live with. However, about 1 inch away is another amber light that blinks when I activate my turn signal. More than once, I have freaked myself out thinking the blind spot detection was alerting rather than my turn signal.

Horrible design.

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