OT Sometimes you really wonder about people

[HVS]

Some things make you feel very old.

While studiously wasting time this morning by poking around some newspaper sites, I came across articles about some people's astonishment at finding out what the glare-reducing tab - apparently a "secret button" - on a car's rear-view mirror is for.

Now, I like to think that I give uninformed people the benefit of the doubt -- not knowing something doesn't make a person stupid -- but my flabber was absolutely gasted to discover that there are grown adults out there who have been driving for years without knowing what the tab is for.

(...wanders off, making small children uneasy by an old guy muttering to himself about people today......)

[GB]

We have had our current car almost 15 years, and my wife has not read the manual.

[Tim Streater]

No natural curiosity, then?

[Tim Streater]

Hardly a "secret button", is it. This is a dipping rear-view mirror we're talking about, eh, where you move the tab a night to adjust the mirror to reduce the light it relects to you, the driver. These have been around for 50 years or so.

Whether she's guilty of this particular one I don't know, but my sister is proud of operating on a "need to know" basis, meaning that she knows nothing. Trouble is people like this then go off and join the LibDems and try to suggest policy based on - knowing nothing.

[Andy Burns]

some it's an electrical button you turn on/off, last couple of cars it's a sensor in the mirro that "dims" the rear and door mirrors automatically ...

[John Rumm]

My previous car had an electrical push switch on the mirror itself that if turned on would activate a light sensor and LCD dimming element... so when illuminated brightly from behind it would darken somewhat. Took me a while when I first got the car to work out it was driven by a lithium battery in the mirror - which was why it did not initially work as the battery was flat.

[nib]

Indeed, my wife's last car had a small electrical push-button on the back of the mirror that disabled the automatic dimming. There was a tiny LED to indicate which state it was in, but no way to know about the switch other than by feel.

nib

[John Rumm]

I have read bits of mine - but it is hard going because I don't read Japanese :-)

[Colin Bignell]

They have been around since the 1930s. I bought one as an after-market fitting for a car in the 1960s, but it was the 1970s before they became common OEM equipment. It is a very long time since I had a car that didn't come with an auto-dimming rear mirror though, so I am not surprised that many people wouldn't know what the tab on a manual dimming mirror was for.

[Jim GM4DHJ ...]

what is it for then ? ...

[Dave W]

I'm not surprised that many people haven't found the tab, as it requires RTFM to know about it.

[Bob Eager]

THese are just clickbait headlines. Loads of them around.

[Colin Bignell]

For a real DIYer, that is the last resort when all else fails.

[Tim Streater]

It doesn't require RTFM to wonder what it's for, fiddle with it, and discover for yourself.

[GB]

That's a comment from someone who often does read manuals, so is confident that a little switch on the mirror doesn't have disastrous (or at least unexpected) consequences, like operating the ejector seat.

[Tim Streater]

Why would a little switch on the mirror operate the ejector seat, or indeed do anything bad at all? Mind you, I agree that some people are weird. We had a box brownie when I was a kid, with the little slider on the front that moved a lens in front of the shutter jobbie so you could take closeups. Actually you had a choice of three settings. My stepmother always used to insist it be left at the middle setting (so, a weak closeup lens for groups of people) "in case it damaged something". But then she was dim.

[Chris J Dixon]

My first car, a Beetle, was about that long ago. I discovered the dim position on the mirror when I moved it bodily whilst cleaning it. It was some considerable time later that I found the button to achieve the adjustment.

There was no manual in the car. It had been traded in at a local garage, and was first sold in South Africa.

Chris

[Chris J Dixon]

My partner's car has a camera-based rear view mirror.

It has drawbacks for me as a driver. I like to simply swivel my eyes to glance at the mirror, but naturally the screen requires me to refocus. Additionally, as I wear varifocals, I am looking through the wrong section of the lens.

It can be switched off and it can be used as a slightly dim conventional mirror.

OTOH, as a passenger, I find the digital screen works fine - I can turn my head to look at it, and it shows me a clear rear view from the passenger seat.

Chris

[Brian Gaff]

Well, I'd have thought the clue was in the name, and I don't drive. There are those who think the mirror is only there for ladies to touch up their makeup.

Why can you buy bicycles with no lights? Why would you make a silent electric car that nobody can hear coming? Why would you run a cycle lane in front of the bus doors where people are trying to get on and off? I often wonder that if nobody had invented two wheeled vehicles until now, whether they would be banned outright as being unsafe at low speeds and make the rider too vulnerable.

Brian

[Owain Lastname]

I think Google can translate Japanese if you point a smartphone camera at it?

Of course, it might not come out as actual English, but most of the nouns should be there.

Owain