Looks just like a regular rear window, until reverse gear is engaged. It then turns totally black, preventing the driver from looking round to reverse and forcing them to learn to reverse properly using the side mirrors only.
That's it.-- 8th of 7, Jan 01 2013 The advertising campaign for this would be challenging. It falls into the "buy this product because it will make you do something you don't want to but which I think you ought to" category.-- MaxwellBuchanan, Jan 01 2013 This is a long-standing argument between T.G.F.J. and I; she insists that using only the mirrors is the correct and proper way to reverse. I was taught to use my mirrors but to always look over my shoulder as well, even when changing lanes. Mirrors provide a very limited arc of vision; to me it seems silly and needlessly risky to rely solely upon the sliver of the world reflected in the mirrors when a split-second glance can not only confirm what they show but also fill in the considerable blind spots that they do not cover.
For the record, I can reverse with mirrors only quite capably; one picks these things up quickly when one owns a big truck with no rear window. Just the same, I sometimes lean out the window and look back, because I'm all for taking in every bit of visual information I can get rather than accidentally backing over somebody's reasonably priced car with my 46" Michelins.-- Alterother, Jan 01 2013 Re link - Pah! Those instructions were aimed at Connecticut drivers. On the other hand, England's finest Highway Code says:
"Look carefully before you start reversing. You should: use all your mirrors check the ‘blind spot’ behind you (the part of the road you cannot see easily in the mirrors) check there are no pedestrians (particularly children), cyclists, other road users or obstructions in the road behind you. Reverse slowly while checking all around looking mainly through the rear window being aware that the front of your vehicle will swing out as you turn."-- MaxwellBuchanan, Jan 01 2013 The inevitable result of this inappropriate, foolish and downright dangerous advice is that it produces a crop of drivers who, when placed in a vehicle such as a van with no rear windows or central rear-view mirror are completely unable to execute any manouver involving reversing.
A significant proportion of entirely standard vehicles lack anything other than door/wing mirrors.-- 8th of 7, Jan 01 2013 A significant part of the world lacks adequate sanitary facilities, but I seldom pee in my garden.-- MaxwellBuchanan, Jan 01 2013 Borg, come stand behind my deuce and we'll count how many of you I 'didn't see' because I was reversing using only my mirrors.-- Alterother, Jan 01 2013 [Alt], that one falls into the same category as "Do not attempt to eat a live Bengal tiger" or trying to find a flammable gas leak in a basement by means of a Zippo lighter.
Careless, inattentive or unwary individuals crushed by large vehicles are no loss to your species' gene pool. Thing of it as a selection pressure, albeit one mediated by forty tonnes of slow- moving metal.
Railway trains move along highly predictable paths, called "tracks" from which they very rarely deviate. Yet individuals, both on foot and in vehicles, continue to interpose themselves into that critical four-foot-eight-and-a-half region, to their ultimate detriment. It takes a significant volitional action to be struck by a train …
Reversing vehicles display steady and sometimes flashing lights, and often beeping noises too. There is also a detectable parallax shift as the distance between the object and observer decreases. Your species is equipped by evolution with binocular vision for exactly this purpose. You are not obliged to use it, of course. You can just stand there and get crushed. You have choices, but not alternatives.-- 8th of 7, Jan 02 2013 This is a really, really terrible idea. If you're not looking out the back window while backing up, you're doing it wrong. The mirrors are there primarily for use when changing lanes. Even with a backup camera installed, you should still be looking out the back window, and just using the camera to check for anything you can't see directly.-- ytk, Jan 02 2013 random, halfbakery