OBjects in the mirror...

You see this message stuck on the rear view mirrors of most vehicles on road these days. Some form of precautionary measure I presume.

So what is that message? "Objects in the mirror are closer than they appear". It is kind of misleading if you ask me.

Let me start with what I think the mirror should do. Suppose there is a vehicle right about 5 metres behind you. You look into the mirror. And think and gauge the distance as 3 metres. You speed up a little bit until it looks (in the mirror) like the distance has now increased to 5 metres: when in reality it has increased to approximately 8 metres.

If your mirror does this, then I think its serving its purpose. It 'reduces' the distance between your vehicle and the vehicle behind you so that you can accelerate and increase the actual distance between the 2 vehicles thereby reducing the probability of your 'tail' ramming into your butt (tail ramming into your butt?? :P) in case of a sudden-brake!

But look what the message on your rear view mirror says! It says that the objects in the mirror are closer than they appear. If they appear to be 5 metres behind, they are actually only 3 metres behind (closer)!! What kind of a precautionary measure is this? According to the message, the mirror is showing the objects as farther away than they actually are and thus creating a sense of false safety! You gauge the distance as 5 metres, its actually only 3 dude! Worse still is if your mirror does what it says its doing! It spells disaster I tell you!

Having said that I suggest vehicle manufacturers change the message to something like "Objects in the mirror are farther than they appear" or "Objects in the mirror appear closer than they are".

Of course all this is my own interpretation! Maybe some of you interpret it differently. Good for you!

So the next time you get hit behind while riding/driving, you can sue the manufacturer for having misled you and claim damages! :)

Thank me!