"Objects in mirror are closer than they appear". Can mirrors not be improved/refined to be safer?

Even with a bit of depth distortion, I think the increased field of vision is actually safer.

replace the surface by a self powered LCD screen interlaced with tiny networked cameras.

As someone mentioned above, the effect of the mirror is probably that way by design. It’s probably a trade off to substitute real depth for wider angle.

I think the whole idea behind the convexed mirrow on automobiles was to give the driver a wider range of vision, in order to eliminate some vehicle’s “dead spot” and to avoid a collision, when changing lanes.

As @john65pennington says. Automotive side-view mirrors used to be all flat, and would give a real-size view of whatever it was that happened to show in them. The problem was that the field of vision wasn’t as wide as needed to see what was in the blind spots. As a consequence, the blind spot was pretty large. In addition, as cars got more streamlined, the designers wanted to use smaller mirrors to decrease wind resistance.

The current side-view mirror design is a trade-off to increase width of the field of vision (just to show you that “something is there”), with reduced accuracy of the image that shows up.

Tesla’s Model X which was recently announced will use cameras instead of mirrors to cut down on drag. It’s not available for another couple years though.

I would rather misjudge distance than not see something at all. If you ever looked through a cardboard tube, you can see how wide-angle vision is important and how a regular flat mirror would be dangerous.

You could mount multiple mirrors, but that would lead to confusion. You could go with cameras, but they would suffer the same flaw; either poor depth perception or a dangerously narrow field of vision.

The simplest and safest thing it’s a wide-angle mirror with a warning, and a little bit of driving skill. And if you want to drive without skill, I don’t want you on the road.

My Prius has a blind spot the size of a truck. I almost cut off a semi once. Luckily I heard the rumble (sounds like a truck, but nothing in the mirrors) and decided to crane my neck a little further. It would have been nice to see it, even if distorted.