Do you remember the retrofittable wide-angle mirrors?
When I started driving, an interior mirror and a (small left-hand) exterior mirror were standard; there was usually no mirror on the right. On the other hand, the cars were airy and had thin A, B and C pillars, which meant that there was little in the way of all-round visibility.
However, the interior mirrors were usually small and often did not even show the entire rear window. So people made do with a retrofit wide-angle mirror, which showed much more and even covered part of the rear side windows. The accessory was simply strapped to the existing rear-view mirror and the "rear view" was significantly improved.
A lot has changed since then, but not everything for the better. The windows have become smaller and the pillars much wider. Today, hardly anyone retrofits a wide-angle mirror. There are many reasons for this. For one thing, the interior mirrors have become "smarter" and cover practically the entire surface of the rear window. They are often even shaped like the visible section of the rear window. The much larger side mirrors in modern cars have taken over part of the wide-angle vision function by showing much more than the compact, flat rear-view mirrors of the past. And finally, today electronics with various warning and camera systems also take over the tasks that the retrofit wide-angle interior mirror used to perform better.
Incidentally, the Automobil Revue wrote 40 years agoabout "what rear-view mirrors conceal". Back then, of course, we could only dream of video cameras in the rear area.
