>Oh, and I agree with that, but somebody hauling furniture in the bed of his pickup is the same thing. Those special mirrors on larger trucks still don't allow line of sight directly behind. The side mirrors on my car give about the same view as the special mirrors on the trucks.

Yes and no. Once upon a time we had four cars and a pickup, and the pickup had a plastic rear cover, and its rear window was dimmed and you generally couldn't see a thing in your inner mirror because the glass separating the cabin and the back behaved like a one way mirror, so you'd see an image of what you saw ahead of you brighter than what was behind. So we never really used that mirror - only the outer ones. But those were big enough, and as much as they were neat for the road, they were much neater for maneuvering. I could see precisely where my rear wheel was, and where my rear corner was, and could maneuver the thing into a phone booth if needed.

But yeah, if someone was immediately behind me, I'd have no clue.