Posted on 03/31/2014 11:00:37 PM PDT by kingattax
The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) issued new regulations today requiring all vehicles weighing under 10,000 pounds to be equipped with rear visibility cameras by May 2018. The new rule is designed to protect pedestrians from vehicles backing up into them, though it has up until now faced numerous delays.
Though carmakers like Honda and Toyota have already begun to outfit their cars with backup cameras, the regulations will apply to all cars, buses, and trucks for the 2019 model year. The NHTSA has been pushing for this rule for years, though a final rule has been delayed five times since 2011. According to the group, the new cameras must provide a 10-foot by 20-foot field of vision directly behind the vehicle — a view that can hopefully reduce the 210 deaths and 15,000 injuries per year caused by backing up.
(Excerpt) Read more at theverge.com ...
apparently we need to relearn what "rule of law" means.
Gee, I thought that was the purpose of rear view mirrors.
here’s therationale. 200 people died by a car in reverse. they claim putting these in cars will cost $150 - so it will be more then - per car, and will save 70 people a year.
so 130 will still die for hundreds of millions of dollars spent adding thisto all newcars.
The Average American can’t Afford a New Car
A real study for safety would also have to factor in the amount of people who are killed in older cars that fail, whose drivers can't afford a new or newer car, and keep a more dangerous one on the road.
Rear view mirrors only allow you to see something maybe 15 or 20 feet behind your car unless it’s as tall as your trunk deck. These let you see something the size of a baseball on the ground immediately behind your car.
I love the cameras themselves. Not being able to decide whether to buy one or not and my fellow Americans not being able to decide either, not so much.
So we teach darwinism in school only to teach government “non-intelligent design” in real life daily life?
No wonder we are so screwed up as a people.
Rear view mirrors only allow you to see something maybe 15 or 20 feet behind your car unless it’s as tall as your trunk deck. These let you see something the size of a baseball on the ground immediately behind your car.
I love the cameras themselves. Not being able to decide whether to buy one or not and my fellow Americans not being able to decide either, not so much.
Absolutely agreed. We love having ours, especially because in parking lots, kids sometimes run away from their parents.
That said, it should be a choice, whether to purchase or not.
I was under the same impression.
“when are the American people finally going to stop the regulation and executive order nonsense ?”
No kidding! It’s a nice feature, but if it’s a good idea (which it is) it should sell itself to the public. We just bought a new Avalanche. It is equipped with a backup camera, and it’s not only a great idea for every day backing up, it’s a godsend when you are hooking up a trailer by yourself. All that said, this is nanny state thinking. You don’t get to choose, the government does it for you. Healthcare, motorcycle helmets, all of it!
I have one in my car, but it doesn’t come on right away! Although I try to cultivate the habit of waiting for it, this is largely a losing proposition. I suppose the newer ones will initialize faster, and I should think this would be a point of the law, as long as they’re making one.
Also, even in operation, it has its drawbacks. It is very hard, cognitively, to integrate the backward screen view with the natural visual scan. When I first had it, I narrowly avoided several disasters about to be caused by fascination with the screen. There is even a warning on the screen to look around, although I never understood what it meant until I had my close calls.
All in all, I’m not so sure it’s “The Answer”.
There’s a EU push to have GPS in every car sold by 2020.
more crap
My next vehicle will be a brand new Indian Chief Classic motorcycle.
I have a camera on a 2012 Equinox, never use it.
Travel, cheap travel, is an essential part of driving the economy, from a local walking distance economy of about a couple miles, to bicycling 20 miles or 200 miles with a car.
Just like the airbag killing fiasco and seat belts constraining people from looking around killing bikers, the government is only interested in terror and driving people out of their business by making things unsafe and expensive.
“They” the government isn’t the one who really made this appeal.
I’ll bet with a little research I could discover that the rear view camera companies made the case for mandating it.
Follow the money...
Our Honda Pilot has one and we love. We combat park in malls a lot and this makes it easy to see stuff down low that a mirror would not notice.
In todays cars your kid in the back seat could be choking or dead and you'd have to pull over and get out of the car just to actually see them. Thanks a lot EPA Fuel Mileage Mandates. You have likely killed more people in the name of ghiah or whoever your environmental goddess name is than have died from the so called dangers you claim will harm us.
I’ve got one in my 2013 Honda and it comes on immediately.
Our crew trucks at work have them. They’re great, but not so much after driving in the rain.
Don’t worry. They will mandate wipers for the cameras in another year or two.
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