973_1515165968.gifLast edited by Ferocious Aardvark on stardate Jun 26, 3013 11:27 am, edited 48,562,867,458,300,023 times in total:d7dc4b20b2c2dd7b76ac6eac29d5604e_973.gif
Not facetious, the blind spot is real and dangerous. A good example is on the motorway, every time just before moving to another lane I automatically glance over my shoulder into my blind spot. Not often, but still on a significant number of occasions, there's something there that I couldn't see in the mirror.
If you don't know what your blind spot is then I'm afraid you're a bit of a hazard. The best way to explain it is park on a narrow road; watch a car approach in your rear view mirror. Note that at one point it will disappear from view in your mirror, but will not yet have passed you. It is in your blind spot. If you rely on your mirror and pull out at that moment you will crash. It will be your fault.
There are various gadgets, extra wide angle mirrors etc that claim to address this but nothing imho beats that momentary glance over the shoulder. The reason it is still taught by your driving instructor and is still in the Highway Code after all these years is simple; there will always be a blind spot and any careful driver needs to know this.
To see in action have a look at /watch?v=00N2kQRKVdY in a popular video sharing site.
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Humans have a field of vision that is ALMOST 180 degrees, get someone to test yours, its actually quite surprising what you can see to the side of you, I already know what both of my eyes are like for field of vision because I have it tested by my doctor every six months, but a simple test such as getting someone to approach from behind and then holding your hand up when you can see then should surprise you.
Further to that, your vision is also alerted more by moving objects, its an animal instinct sort of thing.
So, a moped approaching your car from behind won't be visible to you yet, but if you turn your head even just slightly then your 180 degree field should pick them up easily, especially if they are deviating from a static location in relation to your eye, in other words they are pulling out to overtake and moving across you field of vision.
What we really need is an almost 360 degree field like some birds do.