Objects in mirror are closer than they appear

Common card · No. 356030

The phrase "objects in (the) mirror are closer than they appear" is a safety warning that is required to be engraved on convex mirrors, often times on the passenger side, of motor vehicles in many places such as the United States, Canada, Nepal, India, and South Korea. It is present because while these mirrors' convexity gives them a useful field of view, it also makes objects appear smaller than in a plane mirror. Since smaller-appearing objects seem farther away than they actually are, a driver might make a maneuver such as a lane change assuming an adjacent vehicle is a safe distance behind, when in fact it is quite a bit closer. The warning serves as a reminder to the driver of this potential problem.

Read on Wikipedia · Image CC-BY-SA-3.0