Search Results

The availability of new technology for antiglare rearview mirrors has increased the importance of understanding how people react to glare from rearview mirrors and what the tradeoff between visibility and glare reduction should be. We conducted a survey of attitudes toward and use of prism mirrors to determine what guidance that information might offer for future mirror design. The major findings are that (1) there is a high level of awareness and use of prism mirrors, but (2) the benefits obtainable from the antiglare setting of the prism mirror are not fully utilized. The reasons for this suboptimal use appear to be (1) a lower than desirable level of reflectivity on the antiglare setting, and (2) failure to make the required manual adjustments of the mirror.

Electrochromic rearview mirrors can provide continuous levels of reflectivity and unobtrusive, automatic control. The availability of this technology has increased the importance of understanding how to select the best level of reflectivity for a given set of lighting conditions. For night driving with glare from following headlights, the best reflectivity level will always depend on a tradeoff among several variables. This study was designed to help clarify what variables are important and how they should be quantified. Twenty subjects, 10 younger and 10 older, performed a number of visual tasks while viewing stimuli through an electrochromic rearview mirror. Subjects were seated in an automobile mockup in a laboratory, and the reflectivity level of the mirror was changed before each of a series of discrete trials. On each trial, subjects saw reflected in the mirror a visual-acuity stimulus and a glare source of varying intensity.