NHTSA complaint #11513592

Owner complaint summary

There is a safety issue with the driver side mirror, as it shakes in its housing at varying speeds and on non-smooth roads, in that it becomes a distraction of focus in the small time of you looking at the mirror to then switch back to front. This has happened to me few times, changing lanes to the left lane, I saw the shaking of the mirror and lost focus of the image in the mirror and momentarily had no visual input while driving on a highway, at least no useful visual input for driving purposes. This phenomena is the same as if someone drew on the mirror and your eye just cough that drawing and just focused on that instead of the rear view image and then to the front. Side view mirrors are critical safety components of the car, but their viewing purpose is for very short and momentary when needed. If you add a distracting and almost blinding effect to them, you are bound to take away the drivers attention in that critical moment when you least can afford to lose attention. 4 things: 1. The driver is not looking at the road ahead, where the most attention is needed 2. The driver is looking at the left, bringing the instinctive tendency to move the hands, hence the steering, to the left 3. The driver is actually not visually perceiving reflection image of the mirror, instead the mirror itself, often the edges as it naturally gravitates the eye focus in this visual pattern 4. The time spent in looking to the left in the view of the driver side mirror is extended well beyond the safety limit and time needed to get mirror reflection view I foresee: 1. Someone encountering this, in a right curving 1 lane road, the path of the car would bi straight line directly towards the apposing lane/car. 2. Someone looking to the driver side mirror to change lanes to the left and either lose focus and not notice the oncoming car or worse notice abruptly a car and oversteer to the right, then over correct to the left then losing control Toyota driver confirmed today