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Non-planar driver's side rear-view mirrors provide a wider field-of-view than planar mirrors, but produce a minified image. A field experiment was conducted to measure the performance of drivers when making lane change decisions based on mirror information. Four mirror types were included: a planar mirror, a spherical convex mirror and two aspherical mirrors (radius of curvature 1400 and 2000 mm, respectively). Non-planar mirrors improved drivers' detection of adjacent vehicles due to wider fields of view. 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. No increase in the visual workload was 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.

A study is being conducted to investigate the effects of driver’s side rearview mirror types (either flat or nonplanar mirrors) on driver behavior. The study consists of a survey of mirror characteristics, interviews and questionnaires and a field experiment. The present paper gives the results of the first phase of exploratory interviews. A structured list of questions was used to gather extensive information on mirror use habits, on problems drivers have experienced, on their awareness of mirror characteristics and on background variables. The 47 respondents were categorized by age group (younger / older drivers) and driver’s side mirror type (flat, convex, aspherical). The results of this exploratory phase serve as a basis for a revised questionnaire to be used for a large sample of drivers.