To help maximise the observational area around your car, your side mirrors are curved. These are called convex mirrors and provide a wider viewing angle each side of your vehicle. Unlike the curved glass of the side mirrors, the internal rear view mirror is made from flat glass.
It’s important to understand these differences because it changes how you observe objects in the mirrors. Due to the internal rear view mirror being flat, objects that you see in this mirror represent an exact reflection of what’s going on behind you; the objects are the same distance and size as you see in the mirror.
The benefit of the side mirrors being convex means you get a wider view of each side of the car helping to reduce blind spots. It is important to understand however that due to the mirrors being curved, objects in the side mirrors are closer in reality than they appear in the mirror. So whilst a vehicle may appear to be far away in the side mirrors, they are in fact much closer.
Thank you for this very helpful article…Now, it is confirmed that the internal rear-view mirror is made of plane mirror, not convex mirror. Only the side mirrors are convex.
Thank you.