Non-planar driver's side rearview mirrors: A survey of mirror types and european driver experience and a driver behavior study on the influence of experience and driver age on gap acceptance and vehicle detection (final report)

Some European drivers have been using different types of convex, driver-side rear-view mirrors which provide a wider field-of-view than flat mirrors, but produce a minified image. With a minified image, some drivers may have difficulty judging distances and approach speeds. To assess the potential benefits and difficulties experienced by European drivers using non-planar driver-side rearview mirrors, this research included a survey of mirror use as well as an experiment to measure the performance of drivers when making lane change decisions based on mirror information. In addition, an inventory of mirror characteristics on vehicles in use was performed. The survey found that only one third of the drivers knew what optical type of mirror they had. The field experiment quantified the tradeoff between drivers’ improved detection of adjacent vehicles due to wider fields of view and their decision to make lane changes at smaller gaps to approaching vehicles. Drivers’ experience with non-planar mirrors did not generally compensate for the negative effect of accepting smaller gaps, with the exception of drivers who were accustomed to spherical convex mirrors. There was no increase in the visual workload required to process information in non-planar mirrors. The conclusion was that the relative benefits of non-planar mirrors should be greater than the negative effects.